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Lorraine: 19 1 8. 



Lorraine : 19 1 8 

By 

Joel W. Burdick 

Captain A. R. C. 
With the American Expeditionary Forces in France 



New Haven : 
Privately Printed by Yale University Press 

Mdccccxix 






Copyright, 1919, by- 
Joel W. Burdick. 



^CI.A57130S 



■^j 



VI.V 



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Lorraine: 19 1 8. 



Foreword. 

IY I E L D /<? the suggestion that these letters, written with no thought 
of publication, may be offainily interest. 
'They are sketches of observations while on service in France for 
the American ^ed Cross in the final year of the war, and were sent 
to my wife whose unremitting efforts at home in every aBivity of war 
work are an inspiring example of accomplishment. 

The restraints of censorship excluded many incidents in which I 
had part or which catne under my notice. These, however, were of a 
military character, and their omission can be supplied by the exten- 
sive literature concerning that phase of the war. The more repulsive 
aspeBs of the confiiB,the saddening hospital experiences, the suffer- 
ing of the civil populations of the devastated distriBs , and the hard- 
ships and endurance of our soldiers under severe conditions are for 
the same reason but lightly touched upon. If ^^ economy of line'' sug- 
gest in these etchings something of the atmosphere of a warworn but 
beautiful region of France during a unique period, they will have 
served their purpose. 



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J^rraine 
1918 



ON March 27, 191 8, I received a telegram from 
I R. G. Hutchins Jr., Vice President of the Nation- 
al Bank of Commerce, New York, that he wanted 
me to accompany him to France to engage in Red Cross 
work, and to be ready to sail on April 6. This was followed 
by instrudtions from Washington to take a physical examina- 
tion, be inoculated for smallpox, typhoid, and paratyphoid, se- 
cure passport, provide myself with a regulation American Army 
Officer's uniform and report in New York. These preliminaries 
attended to, I went aboard the S. S. Lapland at i o a.m. on the 

1 



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Lorraine: 191 8. 

appointed date and started on the voyage at 6,20 p.m. In addi- 
tion to the civilian passengers, there were nineteen Red Cross 
men in our party, the 308th Regiment of the National Army, 
which was the first unit of drafted men sent overseas, a num- 
ber of Naval Officers and several Naval Aviators. On the morn- 
ing of the 8 th we arrived at Halifax. The harbor was a scene of 
intense aitivity. A little before sunset we sailed again, one of 
a convoy of ten troopships, including the U.S. war ship St. 
Louis^ moving in straight formation, illuminated by a gorgeous 
sunset in fine but cold weather. Outside the entrance to the har- 
bor we saw the wreck of the ill-fated hospital ship Florizel, 
which had been thrown high on the rocks a few days before 
with great loss of life. The rest of the voyage was interesting 
with boat drills, submarine watches under strenuous conditions 
of weather and sea, the close formation of the camouflaged 
ships, the absence of a ray of light at night, the queer specula- 
tions as to our destination, our zigzag course, life-boat and mil- 
itary drills, gun practice, smoke-box experiments, and the in- 
timacies of a long voyage. 

After the third day out of Halifax, passengers were required 
to wear life-belts continuously, the troops were called from be- 

n 10 3 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

low to sleep on the upper decks and we were cautioned that we 
were in dangerous waters, and that our watch, which was un- 
der command of a fine American Naval Officer, Commander 
Stockwell, must not relax its vigilance for an instant. The morn- 
ing of the twelfth day from New York opened on a cold, steel 
blue sea, sharply cut against the pale horizon.There were moun- 
tains far to the east and then mountains to the west, and we 
knew for the first time during the voyage where we were. They 
were the Welsh and Irish mountains, and we were going to 
Liverpool. 



./^r//l8, 1918. 

WE are now in prospedtof reaching port tomorrow. The 
voyage has been wonderfully interesting, and the 
weather good for this season. We shall have been out almost two 
weeks when we land. For the past two days we have been in 
dangerous submarine waters, but have thus far seen none of the 
sea-wolves and you would not wonder that we have not if I 
were permitted to tell you more. For the past week I have 
been on submarine watch from 2 to 4 p.m., 10 p.m to mid- 
night and 6 to 8 a.m. daily. My station is on the uncovered top 



Lorraine: ip 1 8. 

of the wheel-house over the bridge, a windy and exposed place, 
but the woolen helmet and the two sweaters are life-savers. The 
authorities offered to let someone take my place out of con- 
sideration for my gray hair, I refused, however, and shall stick 
to my post, which seems to please them. They think that I am 
a tough old sea-dog, and in fa6t I have been in fine health and 
spirits every minute of the voyage. Of course we never knew 
where we were, and it was only by the stars or sun that we could 
tell our direction: we sailed to every point of the compass. 

The night watch was a lonesome and uncomfortable vigil. 
I would entertain myself by testing my memory of lines de- 
scriptive of fine night skies, or of howling winds and of pierc- 
ing cold. On clear nights Browning's Meditations of Johannes 
Agricola would come to me : 

"There's heaven above, and night by night 
I look right through its gorgeous roof;" 
Again I would see in the foremast with its horizontal spar, a 
great white cross in the illumination of the half moon, leading 
the silent and darkened fleet, the ancient symbol of the Cru- 
saders bent on a holier mission than theirs. These dreamings, 
however, must not interfere with the frequent scanning of the 
sea through the night glasses for the dreaded periscope, or the 
contadi-mine, which we were told might look like a floating 
baseball. If anything were sighted, our duty was to call the at- 
tention of the officer pacing the bridge below us. The morn- 
ing watch had its compensations in the breaking of the dawn 
and the sunrise, and on one memorable morning I saw on the 
eastern horizon the smoke of eight British torpedo-boat de- 
stroyers coming to us as we entered the danger zone. They ap- 




Lorraine :i9 1 8. 

proached from about equi-distant points in the i8o° half-circle 
within a few minutes of each other and were at least two hun- 
dred miles from land, a fine example of accurate navigation. 
Their maneuvers as they neared the convoy, and thereafter 
constantly day and night, were of never failing interest. 

April \<^^ 1918. 5.30 P.M. 

E have just taken the pilot aboard and are at last in 
safe waters and are crossing the bar into Liverpool 
Harbor. Last nightandtoday were anxious and dangerous. We 
crawled carefully through the mine fields and submarine wa- 
ters in the most infested zone. Last night two ships were tor- 
pedoed in the vicinity of our fleet, but we did not see the trag- 
edy. Tonight for the first time in a week we can undress and 
go to bed like Christians, and everybody is happy. We would 
have been a rich prize for the subs and the T. B. D's worked all 
of the time like a pack of trained bird-dogs hunting out coveys 
of quail. It was beautiful! Dinner is called. We sleep aboard 
tonight. 

We disembarked the next morning. Our welcome was en- 
thusiastic, and the troops were greeted joyously by everyone. 
Leaving for London about two o'clock and riding through Eng- 
land in the finest phase of its spring green and bloom, in de- 
lightful contrast with the cold voyage, we arrived in London 
before dark. Here we saw the first realities of war. The hotels 
and streets were alive with British and Colonial soldiers. The 
city was black dark at night, the food at the restaurants was 
scant and poor. We were two days at the Savoy Hotel where 
we saw for the first time Generals Pershing and Bliss and Ad- 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

miral Sims. There were marching troops in the streets and a 
great procession of uniformed women, the W. A. A. C, or 
"Wacks," leaving for France. We left at 2 p.m. for Havre via 
Southampton. The steamer Normania in which we crossed is 
one of the swiftest boats afloat. There was much passport form- 
ality at Liverpool, London, Southampton, and Havre. 

We arrived in port on the morning of April 23, and left for 
Paris at 5.10 p.m. arriving at 10.30. It was a bright, moon- 
light night, and an air raid was expedied. 

Our party was hurried into a dark, covered truck where we 
rode on our baggage through the black streets to the Con- 
tinental Hotel. The Boche, however, did not come until the 
following night, and then got only as far as the outskirts of 
the city. 

April 2\^ 19 18. 
A RRIVED last night. Am quartered here until further or- 
-ZA- ders. The weather is lovely, and Paris is as beautiful as 
ever. Called at the Westminster this morning, and was re- 
membered. The proprietor is in the Italian artillery service. 
Called at Henry's at 1 1 a.m. and drank one of our old favor- 
ites to your health. There was an attempted air raid last night. 
They are taken much as a matter of course on bright nights. 
Everyone is on meal ticket rations, but the food is not bad and 
is sufficient for physical needs and is very expensive. 

P arts ^ April 26^ ic)i^, 

WE are waiting here until arrangements are completed 
to divide the men between the various headquarters. 
Last night I attended a farewell dinner to H.P.Davison at the 

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Lorraine: 19 1 8. 



D'Orsay Palace Hotel. About one hundred and twenty-five 
Red Cross men were present. Spring is on, and the streets are 
beautiful. There is little sadness visible, and while almost every 
woman is in black and hundreds of maimed soldiers are every- 
where, they appear to be cheerful. It is wonderful! These peo- 
ple are the admiration of everyone. Even we do not begin to 
appreciate how brave they are under the greatest misfortunes 
that ever befell a nation. 

Paris, generally, looks as it did when you last saw it save for 
the almost empty hotels and the blackness of the streets at 
night. The city is thronged with uniformed men, many of them 
not more than three or four hours returned from the front. 
They are all picturesque and interesting. 

One feels like a spectator in the greatest events and of the 
greatest show that the world has ever staged, and all say 
that nothing in life has ever had a fraction of the interest 
that work here has. The work everywhere is big enough for 
the biggest men. French morale is believed to be higher than 
at any time since the first year of the war. The situation two 
weeks ago was the most critical since the Marne, but now it 
is believed that the Germans are finally held. Confidence is in 
the air; and unless capital mistakes are made, there is ground 
for hope that we are entering the final phase. 

The big German gun sent a few shells to the country about 
here yesterday. I spent the greater part of the day visiting 
the many Red Cross shipping-stations, warehouses, and facto- 
ries in Paris. You can form no conception of the magnitude 
and usefulness of their work. I saw millions and millions of 
dollars worth of supplies of every kind in great warehouses 

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Lorraine: 191 8. 

and in train loads moving to the front. One depot is the cen- 
tral point for receiving and distributing the donations, others 
are for purchased supplies. There are acres of hospital supplies. 
I do hope that the people at home can half realize hov^ nec- 
essary to the v^inning of the v^ar it is that the Red Cross sup- 
port should be unlimited. I am frank to say that I did not be- 
gin to appraise its great v^^ork or its great importance. It is vital, 
and the Expeditionary Army relies upon its assistance and ac- 
tivities to support it behind the lines. After the Army itself 
the Red Cross is by far the biggest thing in the war. I have 
completed my shopping. Almost everything can be bought 
here. Uniforms cost less than in New^ York or Pittsburgh — 
shoes, somewhat more. Food is of course high, and I have 
seen no white bread or sugar since arriving in England. I am 
perfectly well and am eager for work. 

Paris^ May 4. 

"^HE consolidation of the Armies has somewhat compli- 
cated the plans for our work, but they are gradually being 
straightened out. In the meantime, like everyone who comes 
over here, we must wait patiently. Nothing can be hurried, 
but in time things are adjusted. The machinery is big and com- 
plex, and is not in all respedts working smoothly; nor is it al- 
ways managed by the kind of men the big work demands. 
Some of our most impatient men have received their assign- 
ments and have gone to various headquarters. 

My work promises to be more comprehensive and import- 
ant than I thought it might be. Young men who can carry a 
gun are not wanted in these non-combatant organizations and 

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Lorraine: 191 8. 

are looked upon with little favor, least of all by the fighting 
man. I think that any healthy man under forty-five should not 
come unless he has a pretty thick skin. The hostess houses 
look empty and desolate, while the cafes are crowded. The 
chaps I meet here do not seem to care much about being moth- 
ered. 

Department stores are crowded; life on the streets is a(5live, 
and there are apparently enough taxis to serve public needs. 
It is curious how quickly one becomes accustomed to strange 
street scenes. It seems as if every French regiment has a dif- 
ferent uniform ; and there are thousands of officers and soldiers, 
universal mourning dress, and crippled men everywhere. My 
elevator boy wears the Croix de Guerre, and has only one arm. 
He is a gentle, cheerful, and likable chap; has been two years 
at the front, and was in nearly all of the great battles. And so 
it is everywhere: medals on doorkeepers and clerks, street 
cleaners, and workers of every kind who have been invalided. 
From all sources one hears praise of these wonderful people; 
of their great bravery and cheerful fortitude there can be no 
question. 

I am perfectly well, and shall just await patiently my assign- 
ment, which may be anywhere. Whether censorship will let 
me indicate the region when I do go, I cannot tell; but it is al- 
most impossible to learn in what part of France any particu- 
lar American officer or soldier is. 

Paris, May 8. 

NO one has received any home mail. We are going to the 
office every morning and coming away disappointed. 
I am leaving Paris on Monday for a place in a very beauti- 

I '73 



Lorraine: 191 8. 

ful section of France — on a mission, which I think I am go- 
ing to like. The work is important and interesting. I fear the 
censor will not permit me to say more. We are under military 
rules, and they are very stridt as to information concerning 
places or movements. I shall supervise the Red Cross hospital 
activities over a large and active zone. The assignment exceeds 
in magnitude and responsibility anything that I had anticipat- 
ed. The work is all very big, and one has to multiply the re- 
sults of any former experience by almost all the powers of the 
imagination to reach the necessary end. The sole obje<5t of 
everything being done is the winning of the war, and to this 
men are expected to devote every ounce of energy; and this 
means that as the war is the greatest expenditure of energy 
ever known, so must all individual effort be likewise. I shall 
be glad to leave Paris and get into the open country. I meet 
old acquaintances every day. The weather has been almost con- 
tinuously dark and cold. On the rare sunny days the profusion 
of lilacs and rhododendrons in the parks quickly makes one for- 
get the gloomy days. One hears but little war talk; but feels its 
presence in the ceaseless processions of supply trains oi camions 
moving to and from the front through the rue Rivoli, and the 
coming and going of uniformed men from all parts of the earth. 
Four of us went to the Tour d' Argent for a pressed duck the 
other night, and were the only customers; and so it is every- 
where at the high class restaurants. Pruniers, however, was 
crowded. Opera ^mdComedie Fr an fais performances are well at- 
tended, but one is struck by the absence of display of dress or or- 
nament, other than uniforms. 

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Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

Paris ^ May 12, 19 18. 

STILL no letters from home. I am leaving on Wednesday 
for "somewhere in France," if I could say where, you 
would not feel anxious about me. The city is full of Ameri- 
cans; and wherever one turns, they are in evidence. 

I feel no more surprised to meet people I know than I would 
be in New York. Today is dark; and, on the whole, the weath- 
er has been raw nearly all of the time I have been here. Still Paris 
is beautiful in its spring dress, and in many ways is of course 
more interesting than in normal times. The streets are rich in 
color and life. Last Thursday was Ascension Day, one of the 
great festivals. The weather was bright, the boulevards and 
cafes were crowded. One could hardly cross the streets, the 
traffic was so dense; and mixed in with automobiles and taxis 
were great lorries coming from or going to the front. Hun- 
dreds of poilus in every kind of uniform and in every degree 
of convalescence were sitting outside the cafes with their girls 
and friends as cheerfully as if they had not been shot up. This 
morning I saw several hundred boys and girls in Alsatian cos- 
tume with drum corps, banners, and military escorts march- 
ing through the rue Rivoli with fine swing and enthusiasm, 
carrying wreaths and flowers with which to decorate the Alsace- 
Lorraine monument. It was a beautiful thing to look at. The 
girls and boys were dressed alike in white jerseys, white tam- 
o'shanters, and skin-fitting white tights a I' Alsatienne, with 
high heads and springy, rapid stride — a really wonderful and 
lovely sped:acle. I wished that you were with me to see it. 
And, by the way, I have wandered pretty well over Paris, in 
the old quarters, the parks, and on the boulevards; and I have 

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Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

scarcely seen one of the hundreds of children with soiled 
face or hands. No matter how poorly they may be dressed, 
they are all clean — and so are their clothes. A tribute to the 
French mother. It is also worth while to note that the war has 
caused no relaxation in the pains the city takes to keep its 
streets clean. Paris is as immaculate in this respect as ever. 
Still I am glad to leave here. I am to go into a fine part of the 
country on an inspecftion and observation tour among the hos- 
pitals where our soldiers are. Keep on writing. Some day such 
of your letters as the Boches have not sent to the bottom of the 
sea will reach me, and I cannot tell you how eagerly I await 
them. 

A, P. 0. No. 731, France^ May 16, 19 18. 

I ARRIVED at my post yesterday. This is an interesting 
and picturesque village. I take my meals at an officers' club, 
and shall probably have a room near my office in a first-class 
French family. Later I may get quarters in an old chateau, 
which the fellows who arrived earlier have taken over. Our 
food is good, we live something as we would at Ogilvy's Camp 
on the Tobique so far as conventionalities and conveniences 
are concerned. I shall spend two or three days automobiling 
around the adjacent country, inspecting hospitals and camps. 

It will interest you to know that I found S here, whose 

room I occupied last night, and who is in charge of the sedtion 
of supplies at this post. He was surprised and pleased to see 
me. I rode about five hours yesterday by rail and then thir- 
ty-five miles by auto to reach my destination. Health perfect. 

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Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

A, P. 0. 731, France^ May 20, 1918. 
AT last four of your letters came in a bunch. On Friday I 
.Z^^ motored to a place about forty miles distant to inspect 
a base hospital, returning on Saturday via another large hos- 
pital. 

Interesting things follow in such quick succession that I 
would have to write every day to keep you informed as to my 
movements. One hardly knows where he may be called in the 
next hour so that it is scarcely worth while to unpack one's 
trunk. This may be my headquarters for the rest of the season 
or I may have to go tonight a hundred or more miles away. 
This town is something like Angouleme, quite as pid:uresque- 
ly situated and perhaps even more ancient. 

The surrounding country reminds one of the landscape a- 
round Gettysburg with beautiful cultivated valleys and many 
wooded hills. The forests are extensive, and wild boars are said 
to be a nuisance, the state paying a bounty for killing them. 
Officers hunt them with local sportsmen. Yesterday (Sunday), 

with Mrs. T and S , took a fourteen mile walk to 

visit a famous shrine. Today I exped: to help entertain the cele- 
brated Miss for a day or two. Women with self-appointed 

missions are looked upon as something of a trial in these ad- 
vance zones; that is to say, those who are rich in money and fads, 
and poor in common sense. One wants to do queer things in 
hospital wards with some damn system of color or design to 
cheer the patients. The kind of decoration the average man 
wants while lying on a cot is a picture of a girl pulling up her 
stocking or some such cheerful thing to amuse him. I do not 
believe that a woman can suitably decorate a room for an un- 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

agsthetic man. Some of these people are really a problem over 
here, and the military authorities dread them as they would a 
Boche shelling; so it is becoming more and more difficult for 
them to get permission to move about the zone. The real work- 
ers, however, are splendid, self-sacrificing, and overworked 
women. 

The foregoing observations are equally applicable to some 
of the men — even more perhaps — who have somehow gained 
admission to the country, bringing with them their long-ex- 
ploded and long-haired crank theories and the consuming self- 
consciousness of reform missions. 

Northeastern France^ May 22, 19 18. 

YOUR last letter was of April 23. I suppose the next ones 
will come as a packet. Perhaps mine reach you in the 
same way. I am very busy. 

Each day I motor from thirty to eighty miles to visit hos- 
pitals. I hope soon, however, to have more time at these head- 
quarters. I have been placed in general charge of R.C. hospi- 
tal activities in what is known as the Advance Zone. These in- 
clude the placing of representatives, the construction of recre- 
ation buildings for enlisted men and patients, clubs for nurses 
and for officers, supervision of R.C. chaplains, the operation 
of farms in connection with hospitals, the distribution of sup- 
plies, except those of a medical or surgical nature, and scores 
of other activities. For instance: I am just now, at 6 p. m., re- 
turned from a visit to a hospital twenty miles away, filled with 
shell shock cases, and while there arranged for the construction 
of a building one hundred and twenty-five feet long by twen- 

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Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

ty-five feet wide. Then after disposing of that went on ten 
miles beyond where the United States is building a 1 0,000 bed 
hospital which may be expanded to one of 20,000 and even 
2 5 ,000 beds. Here arrangements must be made to provide every- 
thing necessary that the government does not supply: sewing 
machines, pianos, decorations, recreational instrumentalities; in 
short, a thousand and one details to ameliorate the conditions 
of life in these great, bare, and unsightly places. It is difficult 
to conceive how much there is to do and to be done expedi- 
tiously. The man who looks after the details of the farm and 
garden activities is Henry O. Tanner, the painter. (See his fine 
painting in the Carnegie permanent collection.) 

Yesterday I discovered about fifty miles from here, in anoth- 
er direction, a hospital entirely occupied by doCtors and nurses 
from the Allegheny General Hospital, Major King in charge. 
The entire expenses for equipment and transportation of this 
unit, I am told, are provided for through the munificence of a 
Pittsburgh woman. 

We have a wonderful lot of men here, all of them with a 
record of success in their respective lines at home, who are 
freely giving their services and money that the country may 
be "made safe;" and, indeed, the magnitude of the work re- 
quires the finest quality of executive ability. The job is big in 
every way, and one has little time to think of anything but the 
work in hand. This work ranges from a ViCtrola needle to 
searching out missing men; from looking after Home Com- 
munication Service in behalf of the soldier to the construction 
and equipment of baseball fields and movie theatres, and, with 
it all, I have been every minute since leaving home in perfeCt 

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Lorraine: ip 1 8. 

health and spirits. I am not at this writing within sound of the 
guns, but everything around us is war activity. I find the little 
French at my command a convenience, but I desperately wish 
that I could do better with it. A Frenchman or French wom- 
an never laughs at one's mistakes. They are polite, patient, and 
helpful. 

My quarters are comfortable. There is a good officers' club 
for meals — and they are mighty good meals. I have a room 
with the Mortier family in a good house. It looks now, how- 
ever, as if I may have to organize a mess and take a house to 
accommodate the growing force and to entertain visiting re- 
presentatives. This arrangement is not so formidable as it sounds. 
A furnished town chateau (anything not a cottage is a chateau 
here) can be rented at from $60 to $75a month; and the ex- 
penses of service, food, and rent, divided among the members 
of a mess of six or eight men, are only about $ 1 00 a month 
per person. In Paris it would cost $20 a day for like comforts. 
I hope that I shall not be called back to Paris, but one never 
can tell. One may be a general manager today and a motor- 
cycle rider tomorrow; and if one is needed in some remote 
corner of France five hundred miles away, one may be called 
at an hour's notice — ^^Cest la Guerre T The service is in a 
highly mobile condition, just like the army; and I think that 
I may be permitted to say that there is sometimes confusion 
and disorganization. 

Ordinary business rules are thrown to the winds, and every- 
one has to make his own place in the work. It moves with great 
velocity and on a large scale, shifting with the uncertainty of 
war itself. The work of weeks may be in full running order 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

today; tonight an army division may move unexpectedly, and 
leave everything that has been so carefully prepared high and 
dry and deserted. But, nevertheless, all must be done in ad- 
vance. 

If operations are imminent here on a large scale, hospitali- 
zation must be anticipated on a commensurate scale. It may 
never be used or it maybe doubled. One may be doing a work 
today w^hich calls for the greatest flights of imagination only 
to have it scrapped tomorrow. One must be on the ground to 
realize what an unprecedentedly tremendous thing this war is. 
There is only one thought here. This is a most beautiful and 
in all ways a most interesting part of France; but lovely land- 
scapes, storied castles, ancient churches, and all of the things 
we travel in normal times to see, are scarcely noticed. 

I am becoming as well acquainted with the roads and the 
country within a radius of a hundred miles of here as I am with 
Allegheny County. I must tell you one thing, however, which 
was to me a real event. I have heard the nightingale. I was 
more fortunate than John Burroughs, whose quest in England 
was so near failure. In this case, the bird came to me, and this 
is how it happened. One night last week I visited a hospital 
center, where I slept in a lovely tree-embowered villa. A night- 
ingale, close to my open window, was fitfully singing now and 
then through the night. I listened with much interest, and 
was disappointed that his song, while fine, was inferior to that 
of our brown thrush; and went to sleep with the feeling that 
John Burroughs had not missed so much after all. At three 
o'clock in the morning, however, he started his real song, and 
did not stop for an hour and a half. It was beyond belief — the 

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Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

most amazingly beautiful thing in bird music! He would sing 
four or five seconds, stop four seconds, and so on without in- 
termission for the hour and a half; and try as I did, I could 
not detecSt the repetition of a strain or a note during those hun- 
dreds of variations — and not one of them was harsh. By this 
time it was beginning to get light. I was almost exhausted with 
the pleasure and excitement of the most joyous hour and a half 
of lovely bird music I had ever heard. Joan of Arc might have 
mistaken this for the Celestial voices. 

I am writing this letter after a hard day's work and could 
go on interminably if the Censor would pass some of the things 
I would like to tell you. I do hope that you will receive my 
letters without too great delay that you may know how well 
and how interested I am. We are having fine summer weather 
after an unusually disagreeable spring. 

The VosgeSy France^ May 25, 19 18. 

YESTERDAY, for the first time since arriving here, I was 
not obliged to motor somewhere, and could devote my 
time to the office. The confusion incident to new work is 
clearing,andsomething like orderly routine isbeing established. 
I have a Ford and a chauffeur, always at hand and almost always 
in use. Yesterday a hospital C. O. applied for a delousing plant 
for men just in from the trenches. This involves the construc- 
tion of a building equipped with showers, sterilizing vats for 
clothing, etc. 

Another CO. requests us to suitably furnish a house for a 
unit of trained nurses, who are shortly to arrive. As I am writ- 
ing, an application comes in for a rest station for soldiers while 

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Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

awaiting transportation from the station to the hospital; anoth- 
er, for a baseball field and tennis-courts for convalescents. It 
is all lively but interesting work. Just now I am again inter- 
rupted by a request for a shelter tent for nurses who want to 
swim in a river. Another, a little while ago, from the Maire of 
a small town for a little financial help for his civil hospital 
which has been converted into a French military one with cas- 
ual American soldier patients — gave him 5000 francs — etc. 
I am permitted to say that I am located in the Department of 
the Vosges in Lorraine. Mr. Tanner, the artist-farmer, just 
comes in for 2500 francs to pay for seed-potatoes, which he 
must have in an hour. All is arranged, and Tanner happy. This 
is all for today. 

A, P, 0. 731, Vosges^ France^ May 27, 1918. 

ON Saturday, went to a wonderful walled town sixty-six kil- 
ometers distant. The ride was like motoring through 
northern Vermont, except that here pid:uresque old towns and 
ruined castles crown many of the hill tops. The countryside is 
now at its best. Scarlet poppies are beginning to appear in the 
fields and by the roadside; the hawthorns everywhere are smoth- 
ered in dense bloom — some are white and some are pink, with 
only the tree trunks visible under their loads of flowers. There 
are also flowering locust trees, which in places cover the dis- 
tant hillsides with a golden yellow glow; while the fields pre- 
sent every shade of green. There can be nothing finer than late 
spring under these brilliant Lorraine skies. Our situation in this 
strategic town brings us in daily contad: with almost every dis- 
tinguished American visitor to France. A call of the roll would 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

read like a page from "Who's Who," but they are mostly bul- 
ly fellows bent upon the supreme aim of trying to help win the 
war. 

A day or two ago, blew in (the man who made a lot of 

Red Cross noise in ) covered with medals and looking like 

a delegate to a firemen's convention. An amiable vanity; but in 
questionable taste around this rough camp where one never 
asks "What has he done?"butrather, "Whatcanhedo?" and 
"What is he doing?" and with utter indifference concerning 
who or what he was at home. This is really a great school of 
democracy for men who, in civil life, indulged the pleasant 
thought that they had arrived. They must begin over again and 
leave their reputations behind them when they land in France 
with the A. E. F. This applies particularly to the volunteer 
workers in the Non-Combatant Auxiliary forces. It is all most 
interesting. Daily we have at first-hand stories fresh from the 
front, which would delight the hearts of special correspond- 
ents. Many of them may not be printed or told except in the 
privileged confidence of the officers' mess table. 

I wish I had time to write all my friends, but I can only write 
to you in intervals. 

A, P. 0. 731, France^ May 30, 1918. 

WE are watching the progress of the battle which began 
Sunday; and also the results of the "Big Bertha" bom- 
bardment of Paris, which was resumed at the same time. Last 
night we saw flashes in the sky, and the sound of the guns was 
quite distinct. Every hour has its new experience. A few minutes 
ago, I watched a gas drill, a file of troops putting on their masks 

C ^8 3 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

and going through the gas house, the door of which some sol- 
dier-artist had decorated with a well-painted representation of a 
skunk. It tries the heart to go through a hospital filled with 
gassed men. The other day I went through a hospital full of 
shell shocked men; but I am not going to write about such 
things — only to say that the genius of the Boche devils, in de- 
vising agencies of suffering and terror, makes the ingenuity of 
the old-time Apache seem mild by comparison. About the on- 
ly thing worth while now is to put them forever out of busi- 
ness. They are at last being given more of their own medicine 
in the reprisals of our airmen than they relish. 

I do wish you could see this beautiful sed:ion of France at 
this time of year. Don't worry about my grub; it is better than 
you are having at home. Our mess is not quite as formally con- 
ducted as a dinner-party. We take our morning oatmeal out of 
the dipper in which it is cooked, draw our coffee into bread and 
milk bowls, have our meat, salad, and dessert on the same plate, 
and do not fuss much about napkins.We have whitebread, jam, 
and sugar, and you would love the local cheese, a kind of gru- 
yere. The French people here love us and, quite naturally, our 
money; and never meet us without saluting. They are all and 
more in likableness than you and I thought them to be when 
we have been in France together. Some little Kodak snapshots 
of the "Capitaine" are enclosed. 



June 2, 1918. 

MEMORIAL Day was appropriately observed. Our Red 
Cross staff assembled at Base Hospital sixty-six at ten 
o'clock, and joined a procession of such officers and soldiers at- 

C 29 1 



Lorraine: ip 1 8. 

tached to the hospital as could be spared, and marched about a 
mile through the dust and heat to a cemetery where fifty-five 
American soldiers are buried. An address by the Chaplain, the 
decoration of every grave with a wreath of flowers, which the 
soldiers at the hospital had helped Miss Putnam, the Red Cross 
Searcher, to make, and the gun salute over the graves, all in fine 
surroundings and under a clear sky, were the incidents. 

A considerable number of French soldiers and residents of 
the town joined in the reverential tribute. While the ceremo- 
nies were in progress, a squadron of four air-planes passed over 
the cemetery. 

The holiday was generally observed by the French as well 
as by the Americans. We are in quite tense anxiety just now 
about the Boche offensive going on between Rheims and 
Soissons. I heard of a party of American soldiers, who had been 
rehearsing an attack with baseball bats and grenades as a Dec- 
oration Day night surprise, with the result that they were met 
with a drenching of gas from the German trenches, and gave 
a lot of work for the surgeons to do at one of our Evacuation 
Hospitals. Thought and adtion are becoming more and more 
absorbed by the growing necessities of war work. Still I shall 
try to give you frequent brief glimpses of the things which 
make "atmosphere" in these strange days in Lorraine. 

Yesterday, while passing through an ancient and interest- 
ing town with a castle and round tower, which reminds one of 
the exterior view of Loches, we met a showy church proces- 
sion with a high church dignitary in gorgeousyellow vestment, 
walking under a crimson canopy with great, white plumes on 
each of its four corners and being borne by four men. A pom- 

: 3° 3 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

pous affair with many Russian, French, and American soldiers 
in the procession. Scarletpoppiesare appearing,and some of the 
fields are as brilliant in flowering weeds as the California plains 
are in March. Mme. LeRoy, a hard working woman here, told 
me today of the loss of her husband in the war, and of a son just 
returning to the front after eleven months in the hospital re- 
covering from seven wounds, but who writes to his mother 
daily. She was uncomplaining, but said she was beginning to 
grow bitter towards the Boche. Remarkable patience and re- 
straint are characteristic of these fine spirits. 

A conference of base-hospital representatives at our mess. 
They came from points as far as eighty miles. Yesterday (Sun- 
day) I motored to a hospital which I had not before had an op- 
portunity to visit, and returned in time to take a two-hour walk 
outside the town. The views were quite as fine as that from 
Richmond Hill over the Thames Valley, which you know I 
have always regarded as one of the most perfed:. In the even- 
ing I accepted an invitation to dine with Miss P , one of our 

hospital searchers, in company with another Captain and a new 
woman arrival assigned to another hospital. A charming affair 
in the garden of my hostess' billet. The dinner was cooked and 
served a la Frangaise. An omelette with mushrooms, finely 
broiled veal chops, garnished with carrots, a course of new aspar- 
agus from Madame's little garden, mirabelle plum pie, and de- 
licious, freshly picked French cherries, all washed down with 
a perfedily corking Chablis. Two hours of good food and good 
talk in a garden about one hundred feet square, with high ma- 
sonry walls on three sides, the house enclosing the other. A 
compact bit of French economy it was with a row of flowers a- 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

longside two rows of cabbages, then a half dozen rows of po- 
tato plants, salad kitchen vegetables in variety, and all in a space 
a little larger than our back yard at home. One face of the wall 
was covered with trained pear trees and vines. In one corner 
was a vine-embowered cluster of wire chicken boxes, the en- 
trance to which through the formally trimmed vines looked 
like the approach to a tiny shrine. In the corner, diagonally 
across, was a rabbit hutch, similarly concealed. 

A round stone table with stone benches, and over all a sin- 
gle tall pear tree under which we sat and ate our dinner with 
the blue summer twilight sky above us. All this was separated 
from a very busy street by a twelve-foot wall, and yet was as 
sylvan and retired as if we were miles in the country. You see 
that there are bright spots even in the war zone and when they 
appear we make the most of them. I am crazy for news from 
home; things which may seem trivial to you folks are of 
immense interest to me. 

June 3, 1918. 

JUST a line to tell you that I am just fine. When weather con- 
ditions are right, we hear the faint report of the guns at 
the front, but they are more felt than heard. Today I was one of 
the hosts to a Major-General and Staff, about sixteen in num- 
ber, at luncheon of which I enclose a menu. The pink cham- 
pagne had ^''beaucoup'' kick. Tonight, in response to my invi- 
tation, there will be a dinner to the hospital representatives in 
my department at our mess. They come from all sections in 
this zone and will number about twenty. The conference is 
sure to be interesting and helpful, and I expert that out of the 

C 32 : 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

experiences and observations of so many fine men of first class 
ability, we shall all learn much to aid us in the administration 
of the heavy duties which war has imposed upon us in this 
a(5live field. 

June 5, 1918. 

THIS is my first attempt with a typewriter. If it is a rough 
piece of work, allowance must be made for inexperience. 
We have to learn to get along with such means as are at hand; 
and it happens that a machine has arrived, but the promised 
stenographer has not. 

There are plenty of Captains, numerous Majors, but real 
privates are scarce in the R. C. around here. I am trying, how- 
ever, to do with my own hands whatever I can do and it is sur- 
prisinghow quickly onelearnshowtoadapt one's means to one's 
necessities under war conditions. The climate is so fine and the 
air so bracing in this fairly high altitude that work is a plea- 
sure. Just now there is a lull, and as I try to do something ev- 
ery minute during my working hours, it is as well for me to do 
this as anything else. This is a machine with a French key 
board; but as I have never touched any other kind and not this 
one until today, I do not, at least, have to unlearn anything. I 
have had no letters during the past week and none at all indi- 
cating that any of mine written from France have reached home. 
The weather continues fine, but not hot. We have in our mess, 
which is only a minute's walk from headquarters, seven men, 
a tame fox cub, a cat, a dog-puppy; and the chief animal lover 
of the bunch hopes to get a young wild boar. The dog and the 
fox play together like kittens. We sometimes have a rubber of 

C 33 3 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

bridge after dinner, and it pained me last night to have to take 
1 5 francs from the Vanderbilt fortune. I need not tell you that 
I am in fine health. There are lice to be had without looking 
far, and a form of what the army surgeons tell me used to be 
called the seven-year itch is prevalent. They say, however, 
that it can be cured in five days under proper treatment. Trench 
fever takes many to the hospitals and is severe for about three 
days. It is caused by body lice. These things are not pleasant 
to write about, but it is pleasant to refled: that one has escaped 
them all. 

yune 7, 1918. 

Official: 

From Captain J. W. Burdick, Chief U.^H. S. 
Advance Zone. 
To My beloved Wife. 
Subjedt: A Perfect Day. 

ONE. Proceeded yesterday to the rear of the battle line to 
visit Yale Unit Autochir Hospital under Colonel Flint. 
Found a wonderfully complete mobile hospital manned by Yale 
men, isolated on a plateau overlooking a vast extent of country. 
The many villages and the valleys and fields in varying states of 
cultivation were a great mosaic of color — overhead an in- 
tensely blue sky, crystalline air, and fine, white cloud masses. 
The air was filled with the cheery music of skylarks; and just 
behind a wooded ridge a mile or two away, now and then, the 
roar of many cannon putting up a barrage; observation bal- 
loons, and air-planes were above, and wounded men were being 
brought in from the front. I watched the process of taking their 

C 34 3 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

histories, the picking of their pockets by the most expert Yale 
"dips," to the last half of a cracked walnut, cataloguing of 
same, the passing of patients to the X-ray room, into the operat- 
ing department, and finally to their wards and cots. Messed 
with the officers at luncheon, same food to all, privates, nurses 
and officers alike, well cooked, plentiful, and first class in qual- 
ity and quantity. To my surprise Dr. S sits down by me at 

table, then A comes in, and several ask about the family. 

It was a regular Old Home Week reunion, and I almost forgot 
my recently acquired military dignity in my surprise and 
pleasure at meeting this splendid group. 

In my turn, I was able to give them an Officers' and Nurses' 
Club, on behalf of the A.R.C., of which they were in great 
need. The nurses, particularly, had no privacy, or place for rec- 
reation. In another ten days they will have a hall, a piano, 
dancing floor, and many minor comforts, which the army does 
not supply, and all as mobile and movable as the unit itself. After 
two hours here, moved on twenty miles to another Evacuation 
Hospital. The roads and fields on the way looked like a page 
of war pictures from the Sunday Tmes.Thtn to a great aviation 
field. In this secStor, steel helmets and gas masks are **Je rigueur." 
No one may be without them. 
Two. Arrived at headquarters at 7:30 p.m. 
Three. It was the best day I have thus far had in France. 

yune II, 1918. 

I WAS delighted to get the cable Sunday morning announc- 
ing the arrival of the new granddaughter. . . The morn- 
ing the message came was so lovely and the country so beauti- 

C 35 3 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

ful that three of my messmates and I climbed the hill to a fine 
bit of woods about a mile from town for a basket picnic. We 
had a fine luncheon, put up in Mme. La Brosse's best manner, 
a fine loaf under the beeches, and with a couple of bottles of 
champagne, which is both good and cheap here, drank to the 
health of the new-comer and her mother, away off here in 
Lorraine. I am sure the baby must be under a lucky star, and 
the occasion would have been perfed: if the family could have 
been with us under these clean, great trees overlooking as hand- 
some a country as lies under the sun. For the time, we left care 
and war to themselves. I have been traveling in the Ford three 
days to places to which my duties take me, since my last letter, 
but have had no adventures. I see a hundred things of minor 
interest in which you would be interested, but they seem un- 
important now; Roman remains, quaint architediure, ancient 
towns and towers by the score, and other memorials of art and 
antiquity. 

I wish I could send you postal cards, but any illustration of 
a place, a building, or a landscape is defendu. How much do you 
suppose it cost me to send you the cablegram of twelve words 
on Sunday ? Four francs and twenty-five centimes, or about nine- 
ty cents, and this included a small tax. This is a special military 
rate. Railroad fares for members of the A.E.F. are about one- 
half a cent a mile. 

There is an epidemic of grippe in these parts, the same dis- 
ease that all of Madrid was sick with a couple of weeks ago. I 
have so far escaped. Light Bordeaux wine and bottled waters 
mixed, for luncheon and dinner, and a bowl of cofi^eefor break- 
fast agree with me amazingly. A has les fanatiques who pro- , 

i: 36 : 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

pose to bar the use of these light and wholesome wines from 
the people's health and pleasure. They harm no one, and they 
do not create a craving for distilled liquors. I have seen no 
inebriety among the French people, and wine is an essential 
element in their subsistence. 



June i6, 1918. 

IT is well into the late Sunday afternoon before I have a mo- 
ment to write you. I was up early, and came over directly 
from breakfast to write, but was met with a quantity of mail, 
and a number of callers, which kept me busy all day. I traveled 
the greater part of the week through a broken, interesting coun- 
try into the mountains, where everything looked more Swiss 
than French, to the rear of the battle line, lunching with an 
artillery outfit in situ; through shell-torn villages, and to points 
where one is not permitted to go without helmet and mask. 
There was no danger, however, as there chanced to be quiet 
along the front which I visited. Only now and then a big gun 
split the air just to keep one from forgetting that the Boches 
were on the job. 

There were plenty of incidents as there are every day, which 
would interest any person for a time, but which soon seem 
commonplace — perhaps not commonplace but familiar. On 

the particular front at which I had business, I met Dr. V , 

the son of our old family do<5lor in Albany. He is in charge 
of Evacuation Hospital No. 2. One of my associates left for 
Paris today to take another position in the R. C. 

It is interesting to see them come and go. With one or two 
exceptions I am already the oldest inhabitant of the A. R. C. 

C 37 3 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

Colony here. A man blows in, settles down for life; two days 
later one misses him; the third day one inquires about him. 
Oh! he went out yesterday with the courier, having silently 
passed like a ship in the night, into darkness and space — and 
that is the last one knows about him; and on the fourth day 
he has passed out of one's life and memory, and there is a new 
bridge partner after evening mess about every fifth day. It is 
a very fluid business, just like the army, constantly on the move. 
I am so far pretty well settled, but you may any day find my 
letters marked with a new A. P. O. number. I am perfectly 
well, and have never enjoyed life more — it is a real man's life. 
I hope you are in New Brunswick casting for salmon, but fear 
you think war work must keep you at home. You might knit 
in the boat, and let your guide do the casting, 

yune 20, 1918. 

I CANNOT let this day of days pass without thinking a lot 
about everyone at home. It seems a short year since my last 
birthday when we were on our way to the Tobique. One of 
the disadvantages here is that we are not permitted to write 
about anything of real interest, and of such things life is full. 

The tremendous movements of every kind, the really ele- 
mental things in the lives of all in the war zone, the passing 
across the screen of people we know, regardless of how inti- 
mate our short associations may have been, and the chums of 
yesterday go out of our lives between two suns to make way 
for their successors. 

Yesterday a young and attractive surgeon from B heard 

I was here, and came twenty miles to see me. Since writing 

C 38 3 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

three or four days ago I have been close to my office. The 
weather, after a month of unbroken sunshine, has become un- 
settled, and there has been much rain for four days. I have not 
as yet covered more than half of my territory, and still have 
some long trips to make. I have an assistant, who is almost 
constantly in the field; and between us this eastern section of 
France is becoming like an open book. I could wish no bet- 
ter fun in normal times than to come right to this place as a 
summer headquarters, get a car, and spend the season riding 
through the glorious country over the fine roads, which go in 
all directions. A short day would take me into Switzerland, 
or into Germany; and everywhere are pidburesque monu- 
ments. Roman remains, as I have before written, are common, 
the country is lovely, and the people are fine. Closer association 
with the French of these parts only increases one's admiration 
for them. I find myself getting along fairly well with the lan- 
guage; and am not prepared to subscribe to the sentiment of 
one of my associates that but for the damn French language, the 
war would have ended long ago. I wish you could look down 
from my chamber window in the rear of the house, over a 
garden separated from the lawn by a heavy stone balustrade, 
surmounted with stone urns on the coping like a Watteau ac- 
cessory. The garden is perhaps two hundred feet deep and 
seventy-five feet wide, and is the pride of M. Mortier, , who 
daily sifts its soil through his fingers. It is innocent of weeds, 
and is adorned with flower beds and vegetable plots in which 
are cultivated potatoes, peas, beans, roots, salads, etc. High 
stone walls on three sides are beautified with fruit trees trained 
on their sides with artistic formality. Tables and chairs are 

C 39 3 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

placed invitingly under the trees on the sides of the small in- 
tervening lawn, and there this charming family sit through- 
out the long tw^ilights — not in the evenings, for everyone is 
in bed at dark. The house is immaculate; a placard on the 
door reads "Essuyez vos pieds, S. F.P." 

Diagonally across the street is the chateau where we mess. 
I am not saying much about our table because I do not want 
to excite your envy. You are going without that we who are 
in France may have. We had better leave it at that. They 
nearly starved me in Paris last spring, but not so in the war 
zone. Now as to this birthday. There is going to be a dinner 
tonight. Capt. V. W., a bully chap, pulls out of here with his 
division today, and so cannot come ; but he sent over half a 
dozen of France's liquid sunshine to help along the feast. There 
will be eight men at the table to help eat your fruit cake and 
plum pudding, which have been carefully saved for this occa- 
sion; there will be a rubber or two afterward, and we shall all 
be in bed by 10:30 — perhaps. 

yune 30, 1918. 

FOR the first time since leaving home I have allowed more 
than a week to pass without writing. I have been and am 
perfectly well. I have so far escaped the "three day fever" as 
it is called, which is sweeping the country. The weather for 
more than two weeks has been colder than it was in Paris when 
you and I were there in June, 1 9 1 3. I have continuously worn 
my heavy clothes with a sweater under my tunic, but sum- 
mer has returned, and yesterday and today were perfedt. 
I went to the lines again yesterday, and saw Dr. S at the 

C 40 3 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

Yale Mobile. He and I walked through the fields to the edge 
of the plateau where the day before the earth might have been 
seen kicking into the air under the burst of shell fire; but now 
all was peaceful, no planes, no balloons, and not the sound of 
a gun. I must admit a sense of disappointment. I was unaccus- 
tomed to such quiet, and felt relaxed for want of a little ex- 
citement. There was so little evidence of anything doing that 
I decided to come back by the roads nearest the front, roads 
which are frequently shelled when the Boches have not en- 
joyed their breakfast. They seemed to be safe now and they 
were. The roads traversed an area where I saw many things, 
which I cannot write about; but which I shall never forget. 
Further along I saw the effects of a Boche bombing air-raid 
of the night before, which I shall also remember with no in- 
creased liking for the devils incarnate who instigated it. The 
work grows apace. It is an off day when we do not put over a 
building or two, and the work is only beginning. To add to 
my amusements I have, as I think I told you, charge of the 
A.R.C. Chaplains at the hospitals in the zone. They are of all 
denominations and ranks — an eminent Episcopalian bishop, 
priests, and ministers. This part of the job gives me little con- 
cern. 

Once assigned to a post the trouble ends. This work gen- 
erally is, to every one engaged in it, the finest school for the 
study and observation of human nature. With a sense of humor 
and a determination not to permit anything to ruffle or worry 
one, there is an inexhaustible fund of interest and even of en- 
tertainment in the work. And how quickly time passes! The 
days are as hours and the weeks are as days. I do not give a 

c 41 : 



Lorraine: 191 8. 

thought to business affairs at home, but on my short walks in 
this lovely country I do find interest and charm in the things 
of the wayside. I found a maple tree twenty-five feet around 
three feet above the base, and as perfed: as it was big. Giant 
plane trees, a dozen scenes such as Troyon or Daubigny 
would have loved to paint, peasants and their families in the 
fields like a Millet canvas, women with curious and immense 
paniers loaded with hay on their backs. Always air-planes in 
the sky, larks singing in the heavens, a great hawk sailing 
overhead, riches of scarlet poppies, the largest wild asters I 
have ever seen. Always clean and polite, little children almost 
invariably standing at attention and saluting the "Capitaine" 
as he walks by. The universal cheery ^^Bonjour^M'sieu^" of the 
peasants, men and women, French officers in brilliant uniform, 
generally on a wheel, sometimes on horseback with a groom 
following, always with a smile and a salute, and most interest- 
ing of all, the Poilus on their way to rest from thefront, trudg- 
ing along with guns and complete ninety pounds of equipment 
on their backs, happy and determined. These wonderful 
French soldiers ! the half has not been said in their praise. Their 
spirit and endurance are almost uncanny, and everybody but the 
Boche loves them. All these things I saw, and more, in a sin- 
gle hour's walk, and there are those who say that life is dull. 

yuly I, 1918. 

I ENCLOSE extracts from my June report to Headquar- 
ters at Paris, which will convey a more intelligent idea 
than my discursive letters of what kind of work an A. R. C. 
Administrative Officer does in one of the several departments 
of the organization in France. 

1:42 3 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

" Home Service: We have received requests for information 
concerning the whereabouts, condition, etc., of a large num- 
ber of enlisted men, perhaps an average of three or four per 
day, and have been able to obtain the details asked for in a 
majority of instances. We find that this branch of the work 
is increasing with considerable rapidity. 

"Recreation Huts: The Hut at BH 23 and 36 is near- 
ing completion, and is about ready to receive its equipment, 
which has been shipped, and will be on the ground when 
needed. The construd:ion of an additional Hut at that point 
for nurses, to cost about 3 5,000 francs, has been recommended 
by this Department, and is awaiting decision from Paris. (Since 
approved.) At BH 3 1 and 32, a Hut similar to that now near- 

ing completion at has been approved, the site selected, 

and constru(5lion will probably begin early next week. At Mo- 
bile Hospital 39, a Bessonneau tent has been ereded and suit- 
ably furnished. At Camp Hospital No. i, a recreation hut has 
been ordered and shipped and will be erected when received. 
At BH 66, a recreation hut has been completed and furnished 
and is now in a satisfactory operation. At BH 1 1 6, a large hut, 
in process of construction on the date of my last report, is com- 
pleted, and will be in operation in a few days. Authority has 
also been given for the construction of three additional small 
huts; recreation, nurses', and officers' huts. These will probably 
be in operation within the next month. At BH 1 17, a recrea- 
tion hut has been completed and is in operation, and a second 
hut, parallel in size, to be devoted to work-shops in which pa- 
tients will be trained in skilled industries, has been authorized, 
and shipment order for same made by Paris office on the 26th 

C 43 3 



Lorraine: ipi 8. 

instant. This hut, on its arrival, will be erected and equipped 
by the hospital authorities. At Evacuation Hospital No. 2, 
there is now pending a decision as to whether we shall supply 
a Bessonneau tent to be used at this hospital for chapel and 
recreation purposes. At Camp Hospital 2 1 , the only available 
site for a recreation hut is the village park adjoining the hos- 
pital. Through the assistance of Major King, the C. O., per- 
mission was secured from the civil authorities to use a portion 
of the park, and the hut has been shipped to that point and 
upon arrival will be eredted by the Construction Department. 

"Resurrection or Sunshine Wards and Nurses' Quar- 
ters: After arrangements made in Paris Mrs. was assigned 

to the furnishing and decoration of these rooms and quarters 
atBH 15, BH i8andii6,BH23and 36, BH 3iand32.The 
work at BH 15 was completed during the month, inspe(5ted 
by the writer and a commendatory report made to Paris of 

the results accomplished. Since that time, Mrs. has done 

excellent work in preparing nurses' quarters at B H 117 for 
the reception of the nurses, who have since arrived, and are 

highly pleased with what has been done. Mrs. now has 

work under way at and is working at both and . 

"The writer has visited as much of the territory in his juris- 
diction as was possible, consistent with the condudt of his 
office work, and , his assistant, has been almost continu- 
ously engaged in the necessary field work and investigation of 
conditions. 

" Recreational supplies, in large volume, have been given out 
upon requisitions by this Department, a summary of which 
will no doubt be furnished you by the Supply Department. 

C 44 1 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

"Numerous additional activities at points other than those 
mentioned above are inprocessof investigation, and our activ- 
ities are becoming more and more insistent, and there remains 
very much to be done as new hospitals are established and the 
present ones are being enlarged." 

July 3, 1918. 

I WISH I could give you an idea of how this part of France 
is preparing to celebrate our "Fourth" tomorrow. The 
town is everywhere decorated with our colors. It is like home, 
and how fine it all is and how much of interest every hour 
brings. Let me tell you about today only; I visited a local hos- 
pital this morning and drove out to another this afternoon. I 
will not tell you, because I cannot nor could any one else, of the 
scores of individual cases we meet. But of stories, every nurse 
and every searcher could tell enough to make a book, from her 
experiences of a single day. Today an American private I saw 
proves to have just become an English peer. Another boy al- 
most dying of grief, but not badly hurt, and whose slow con- 
valescence has puzzled the doctors and nurses, finally tells ol 
being in charge of a machine gun, which he was under orders 
not to leave for an instant under any circumstances. With a 
squad of men, among them his twin brother, they go over 
the top, are surprised by the Boches, the brother had a leg 
blown off by a shell, and cries out to his brother at the gun, 
for God's sake to come and get him. The brother at the gun 
struggles between the order to stay at his gun, or possibly sac- 
rifice other men by leaving it and going to the rescue. He de- 
cides to obey orders; whereupon the wounded brother yells 

C 45 3 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

out to him, "You will get your's for this," and either dies or 
is captured, we are trying to find out which. 

A regular army officer of high rank requested us to look 
up, if possible, a wayward brother who was missing, A.W. O. 
L. (absent without leave) and have him cared for if needed. 
We searched diligently, and located him in a place far away 
from where he should have been. You remember young E. 
H. who was with us on our trip to Alaska. He died in a hos- 
pital in this zone the other day. He was an inmate there on 
two occasions when I went through the wards, and I did not 
know it. He was a 2d Lieutenant of Artillery, and died after 
a somewhat protracted illness from heart trouble. The story 
came to me by chance an hour ago. He was a gifted and much 
beloved boy. I go about twenty-five miles from here tomor- 
row to help celebrate the Fourth. 

The next day I plan to leave on a ten days' auto trip to visit 
a score of activities which are in my charge, but which I have 
not yet seen. 

yuly 14, 1918. 

YOUR letter of June i ith came yesterday ahead of one 
previously written. This was a gain of a week because of 
having been sent through the American mails. I returned yes- 
terday from an eight days' motor trip. Four days of the journey 
was as near thefrontaswecould go; some of it along roads which 
had recently been shelled, and a part of the route was shelled 
only two days before. We passed through several towns made 
historic by Boche atrocities in the early months of the war, 
and saw many memorials of the invasion. At one place where 

1:46 : 



Lorraine: ip 1 8. 

we spent the night, we went twice down and up two flights 
of stairs to reach an abri across the street when the alerte si- 
rens warned that Boche bombing-planes were coming; but 
nothing happened, ahhough the place has been bombed al- 
most every night for months. At another town we heard near- 
by firing, as we were sitting down to breakfast. We went out, 
and saw a German plane almost directly overhead being at- 
tacked by anti-air-craft guns. It was surrounded by the white 
and sometimes black puffs of bursting shells against the deep 
blue sky, but managed to escape. After breakfast we went up 
a mountain road through the heavily timbered and superb 
Vosges to the crest, whence we looked down on Germany, 
the Rhine in the middle distance and the Black Forest beyond. 
We were then perhaps a mile across the German frontier, go- 
ing cautiously along the camouflaged road so as not to draw 
shell fire — the Boches in such places almost invariably shoot 
at a dust cloud — when a "210" whined over our heads and 
exploded in the forest below us. Almost immediately a Boche 
plane appeared above us followed by volleys of shrapnel. What 
happened to it I do not know, but I fear it escaped. 

About this time we thought it time to return to France as 
there were too many observation balloons up. After lunch we 
resumed our journey to another city going on our way over a 
mountain four thousand feet high, from the summit of which 
we could see other German towns lying quietly in the plains 
to the east, and in the far distance the Alps. The day was clear 
and calm. The road over this isolated peak runs above the tim- 
ber line to within half a mile of the summit, which is treeless 
and shelterless, except for some trenches and wire entangle- 

C 47 3 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

ments on the top. We left our car on the road while the chauf- 
feur, my traveling companion, Schuyler Parsons, and I walked 
up the steep, grassy slope to enjoy the panorama from the top. 
Observation balloons were hovering above the lines on adjoin- 
ing mountains, but they seemed far enough away. Very soon, 
however, we heard a noise like a planing-mill and an air-craft 
was pretty high above us. With no place to hide and on a bare 
mountain top I felt myself as big as the gigantic "SpecStre of 
the Brocken," my chauffeur running down the fields as if the 
devil were after him, Parsons unconcerned, and I looking down 
into a trench for a safe shelter from machine-gun fire, earn- 
estly, but with apparent indifference, so that Parsons would 
not think I was nervous. I sometimes wonder if he were not 
the best ador at that moment. The chauffeur was frankly 
honest. Either the pilot did not observe us or perhaps was after 
more important game, as he soon disappeared. That evening 
we arrived in a border city after a day of thrills. It was the 
most wonderful travel day in respedt to scenery and general 
interest in my experience. In fad: the entire eight days during 
which time the weather was almost continuously fine were 
enjoyable in a way which never can be felt by anyone who 
travels this route after the war. Of the military operations and 
preparation which we saw I cannot of course write. This trip 
substantially covered all of the territory in the zone which I 
am looking after that I had not seen before. 

There were, as of incidental interest during the journey, 
fine old Cathedrals, walled cities, ancient monuments, great 
garrisons in intense activity, spedacular troop movements — 
to say nothing of the finest scenery in France, and I know 

1:48 3 




I 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

of none finer anywhere. There was also the unique sensation 
of traveling everywhere by and through armed camps. 

You would have enjoyed the enthusiasm with which all 
France celebrated the Fourth of July. Today is the French na- 
tional holiday. I attended the ceremonies at the renaming 
of a street for President Wilson. This is being done al- 
most everywhere in France. But for the busy life here we 
could get homesick. There are no hours or Sundays to give 
time for refledtion. Our recreation is a rubber or two of bridge 
evenings, or a walk into the country as we can find the time. 

Our sleep must be regular, and I am in consequence in 
good form; in fad;, I am looked upon here as something of a 
curiosity of endurance. — Events pass so quickly that I am al- 
ready a Veteran here, and in these kaleidoscopic transforma- 
tions we cannot be sure of what will happen tomorrow. Every 
day new faces come and go. Every day unexpected problems 
arise. These are exciting and great days, and all is as unstable 
as April weather, but it is most interesting. 

One thinks nothing of unexped:edly meeting an old ac- 
quaintance in this far corner of the world, and let me say that 
America is more in evidence here than is realized at home. A 
placard on my wall says that paper is scarce in France, and 
I am a trifle tired. 

yuly 20, 1918. 

THE weather has been hot, but the evenings are lovely 
in their long twilights and beautiful skies. 
We have heard alertes of Boche bombing-planes four nights 
this week, but they were not for this town, which has not as 

C 49 3 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

yet been bombed; and, indeed, there is nothing here which 
would warrant much waste of ammunition. As I must write 
almost exclusively of things of little interest while in the 
midst of great things, I employ my few spare minutes in ob- 
serving trifles. 

For example, it would seem in these unsanitary conditions 
as if house flies ought at this season to be an intolerable pest, 
and yet they are so few that their absence is noticeable to Am- 
ericans. Some observers suggest that in this part of France 
there is a parasite which keeps them down; if so I hope some 
scientist will discover and introduce it in America. 

Again, the range of greens in the landscape is richer and 
more varied than at home. I am leaving my room at the Mor- 
tiers' to take one in the Chateau where our officers mess. The 
change is convenient; but is otherwise not a great advantage, 
as I am comfortable and contented. Did I tell you how our 
mess is organized? This is the most important A. R. C. post 
out of Paris. Our principal officers have the house, which con- 
tains a good library, billiard room, and spacious chambers. A 
competent woman cook, Mme. LaBrosse, with her fifteen 
year old daughter, Georgette, runs the menage, and if I could 
describe the omelettes souffes au rhum^ it would excite your 
envy. She cooks wild-boar meat in wine and spices, (she can 
even make lapin palatable), gives us the delicious salads, such 
as the French only know how to prepare, and you know 
what French veal is — we have that in perfection. At this 
season we have an abundance of peaches and apricots, ripened 
against the sunny side of a wall, and bowls of little wild straw- 
berries which grow in profusion. At every dinner we are enter- 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

tained with fresh stories of adventure by officers passing through 
to whom our table is always open, and it is a rare day that we 
do not hear something which a newspaper man would be glad 
to feature. Last night two aviators, in repos after their stren- 
uous work in the great battle of this week, thrilled us with 
stories of their air-battles; and so it goes. We hear at first hand 
of almost unbelievable adventures and valor. As I am writing, 
news of the great battle at Chateau-Thierry comes to cheer 
our hearts with its accounts of the heroism of our great Am- 
erican fighters. 

It is great, and you cannot realize the joy with which we 
are inspired. There have been anxious days. It has been among 
the possibilities that the enemy might break our lines in this 
sector; in which event, a day would bring them upon us. In 
this remote possibility I may be permitted to say that our plans 
had been matured to move our personnel, our lighter and more 
valuable supplies, and to destroy our warehouses if necessary. 
This danger is no longer imminent and is probably wholly 
removed. 

I would like to read the accounts in the American papers, 
but we rarely see one. Meantime we go on building, equip- 
ping, renting, and farming; and there is no end to the multi- 
plying activities. The wise policy of the A. R. C. in confer- 
ring extensive j urisdidtion upon its heads, makes for expedition ; 
and time saving is the essence of accomplishment in war. Pa- 
per work, unlike the practice in the army, is reduced to a min- 
imum; consequently, the A. R. C. quickly brings matters to 
a conclusion, which army circumlocution would take weeks 
to do. One of my representatives was called upon this week to 

i: 5' 1 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

witness the execution of a negro miscreant soldier, as a part of 
his duty. The culprit was properly hanged, as I can personally 
vouch, and he well deserved it. 

I want to reiterate all I have heretofore said about these lik- 
able French people. My admiration for them grows apace, and 
these men, all of them in uniform, save the very young and 
the very old, are modest, polite, uncomplaining, living and 
fighting cheerfully, grimly, and with an utter disregard of com- 
fort and conveniences. They are the amazement and admira- 
tion of all in our forces. This is not exaggeration; their war 
efficiency and quiet fortitude cannot be overstated. I meet 
them everywhere: singly, trudging along the hot and dusty 
roads for miles to repos under a load of accoutrement, gun and 
all, (these they always take with them when on "permission") 
which makes one wonder how they can carry them at all; 
dauntless airmen taking to their planes; and miles of infantry 
on their marches or making and breaking camp by the way- 
side in the broad fields and on the hillsides — always a thing 
to admire and wonder at. It makes one wish that one were 
young enough to bivouac with and join them in the real work 
instead of having to do non-combatant duty; but one should 
be very happy if one cannot do that, to do what little one can 
do. 

August I, 19 18. 

I FIND that a week has elapsed since my last letter. "Busy" 
would be an honest plea, but not a good excuse as I do find 
time for a rubber or two in the evening. To write this I was 
up at 6:30, bolted my bowl of coffee, bread and jam, and 

C 52 3 



Lorraine: ip 1 8. 

came over to write you before the rush. I can give only a gen- 
eral outline of my movements of the past week. 

My letters have exhausted the landscape, climate, and local 
customs. These are interesting, but of the things most inter- 
esting — the train loads of mangled men being discharged at 
the hospitals, the rushing out of supplies to care for them, 
moving from one place to another to see what can be done to 
help save life, the flights of aviators in flocks like wild geese, 
the night alarms (there were three last night), stories at almost 
every meal by aviators and officers but a few hours back from 
the front — of these there is not time to write. Last night at 
2 A.M. two aviators alighted here, having, through a wireless 
error, flown a hundred miles out of their way; and they talked 
about it as nonchalantly as if they had gone around the wrong 
street corner. Such things are so numerous that they can only 
be sketched in quick outline. On Sunday two A. R. C. men, 
who had been assigned to another department, were shang- 
haied by me and taken to a hospital twenty-five miles away 
where a couple of thousand wounded men were coming in, 
and put to work. 

I had a night ride this week after an all day motor trip ov- 
er roads close to the front. During the day I went to an out- 
post where I saw some officers who came over on our ship. At 
7 P.M. we reached a town which is bombed almost nightly. 
Returning, a brilliant full moon illuminated the white road 
for miles ahead. Our route was through a section which the 
Boche had violently bombed. Two nights previously they 
had attacked an automobile, which carelessly had its side 
lights on, killing the chauff^eur and peppering the two occu- 

C 53 3 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

pants. We thought there might be a chance for us to see a 
"party" on the way home, but with the exception of a few 
star shells and some signal lights and a beautiful ride without 
lights through a landscape which could never have looked 
finer than under this cold bright moon, the trip was without 
incident. It seems that trouble mostly comes when one is not 
looking for it. 

The work is running smoothly — have started seven or eight 
buildings during the week. No problem can be put aside for 
future thought; whatever arises must be disposed of at once or 
one would soon be swamped. 

Am leaving for Paris tomorrow to attend a conference of 
the Chiefs on Sunday, and hope to be back about Tuesday. 
Tell Jane I have given her maple sugar to several little French 
children, to whom it was a thing of which they had never 
heard. Now and then the sun shines hotly, but we sleep un- 
der winter covers and wear wool all of the time, and almost 
always find a heavy overcoat not too warm when riding. The 
climate is bracing even in mid-summer. I have never seen 
such fine grain crops as France is now harvesting. 

Love to all, and do not forget that of all the incidents in 
the life over here, letters from home are the best. 

August II, 1918. 

THIS time I can truly say that I have been too busy until 
today to write. I went to Paris on the 2d inst. and was 
there one week, returning on Friday. The journey going was 
through a day of alternating summer showers and sunshine. 
The fields and hills everywhere were golden with, perhaps, 

C 54 3 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

as fine a crop of grain in harvest as France has had. Was finely 
entertained in Paris. Was kept busy until Thursday; that day 
I had to myself. Paris, otherwise, was not a comfortable place, 
"Big Bertha" was busy all of the time. One day while at lunch 
at a restaurant under the trees, which you know very well, 
three shells dropped uncomfortably near, exploding with 
great violence. 

The next day at 5 p.m. while taking a beer with an aviator 
friend from Pittsburgh outside a cafe, which you also know 
very well, "Bertha" smashed into the front of a hotel only a 
block away. I am afraid that, like a hundred others who were 
similarly taking their aperitifs, we ran away from that cafe, 
and the waiter never did get pay for those beers. That evening 
I was asked to dine at the apartment of my friend Schuyler 
Parsons. He stated, however, that during the day two "Ber- 
thas" had fallen in the same block, and that if I preferred, we 
would go to another quarter of town to dine. I chose the shell 
torn quarter in the chance that only a miracle would dired: a 
shell from seventy-five miles to a block where two had already 
landed that day, and we ate a perfectly prepared and served 
dinner in peace. Paris shrugs its shoulders at these bloody bar- 
barities, and marks up another score to be settled at the Peace 
table. The accounts of Chateau-Thierry in which you are 
reading about the work of our Americans in that awful but 
glorious week are not overstated. All France is thrilled with 
what they did, and it is pleasant now to be an American in 
France. Today we entertained Walter Damrosch at our mess. 
I sent my assistant to an aviation field this afternoon to look up 
some missing men, while I remained here to have time to 



Lorraine: ip 1 8. 

write. I found, on my return, three old acquaintances, five per- 
sonal letters from overseas, and about a peck of Red Cross mail. 
This made an interesting hour after a seven hour rail ride from 
Paris and two hours in a flivver on a hot day, and yet I was not 
tired. Yesterday I decided to take the hour from six to seven 
P.M. three days a week for a French lesson. I would have 
started these when I first arrived if I could have pinched in 
the time. Mile. Marcelle Mortier (pretty name and pretty 
girl) is my teacher. She teaches French in an English school, 
and has only recently returned home on her conge. One can- 
not hope to get far in the three hours a week, but the progress 
made by some of our people was encouraging. While writing 
this I looked out of the door to see a flock of fourteen bomb- 
ing-planes sailing in perfect formation high in the blue going 
east. There will probably be an interesting Sunday evening 
somewhere in Bocheland. Last night there was an alerte but 
no attack, and so the days pass by. We are all rejoiced and con- 
servatively hopeful that the great victories of which we hear 
are at last the beginning of the end. We know that they are 
the beginning of a not distant end, but we are preparing to 
see it before Christmas, mats quand? I am stakeholder for some 
of our mess who are of diff^ering views on this point. 
I am in bully health and spirits. 

August 20, 1918. 

SINCE writing a week ago I have motored to a large city 
south of here, then still farther south through the Burgun- 
dian vineyards where I saw on the way the originals of many 
crude illustrations of Chateaux which I had formerly observed 
now and then on Burgundy wine bottles. The objed: of the trip 

C 56 3 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

was to inspe6t a new twenty-five thousand bed American hos- 
pital now under construdtion. Some three or four hundred 
buildings, all of either concrete or hollow tile construction, 
are completed. The Colonel in command assembled all the 
officers, about thirty in number, at headquarters; and without 
telling me in advance that I was to be more than simply in- 
troduced to them, placed me at his side, and called on me for 
a speech. I got away with it, however, unless the applause 
was more polite than sincere. Red Cross is easy to talk about 
in France. The three days I was in the Ford were hot, but the 
ripe looking country was beautiful. Going, I traveled along 
the base of the slopes of the Cote d' Or on my right, and to the 
left was a fairly level country quivering in the heat, azure in 
color, and accented with thousands of pointed Lombardy pop- 
lars in lines, in groups, and singly. We returned over a road 
back in the hills of the Cote d' Or through fine and big scen- 
ery, and then by a steep winding descent through a palisaded 
gorge, reminding one of the Chapel Pond road to Keene Val- 
ley in the Adirondacks, only the views were even more ma- 
jestic. It was perhaps for ten miles as good as the best we saw 
in the gorges of the Tarn. You must imagine with all this a 
wonderful sky, blue, but not the hard, steely blue of a perfedt 
American sky; rather of a tender hue, but pure in color. Along 
the road we passed thousands of Boche prisoners just from the 
front being marched to their encampments. There were many 
other dramatic and warlike preparations, which later, perhaps, 
the censor might let pass, but not now. 

Last Tuesday a fine looking Lieutenant of Cavalry came 
into the office, and asked if I recognized him. I did not, not 

I S7 ^ 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

having seen him since he was in knickerbockers. It was ! 

I should not be surprised if the attention of the whole world 
were centered on this part of the universe by the time you re- 
ceive this letter. 

You will be interested to know that young Blair Thaw's 
commanding officer was at dinner with us last evening and 
referred to Blair in the highest terms. He is developing into 
a great airman — and by the way we hardly look up at planes; 
they are almost as common as the birds. 

I wonder if you have heard of the fine custom of the French 
women of adopting graves of our American soldiers. One 
will see on a cross marking such a grave a card attached, 
which reads "Adopted by Madame X." This means that she 
will care for the grave, decorate it with flowers, and keep it 
in order. The women are probably mothers of boys who have 
fallen. In my drives I see many little enclosures on the road 
sides, in the fields and woods, with groups of white wooden 
crosses marking the graves of soldiers where they fell. I had 
expelled to spend night before last and yesterday at a front 
line outpost, but was obliged to postpone the experience be- 
cause of the arrival of a couple of unexpected guests who 
spent Sunday with us. 

August 21, 19 18. 

You will doubtless get this in the same mail that carries 
my last letter. The fate of war brought Blair Thaw to 
his death not far from here, and only night before last his CO. 
was relating to me his brilliant future prospedis. 

C s8 3 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

August 27, 19 18. 

SINCE writing you a week ago, experience and work go on 
with accelerating pace until it grows almost beyond con- 
trol; but it is all so interesting and so far in advance of previous 
effort that one lives intensely, and thrives. 

This is now the most important and adtive of the nine A. 
R. C. zones into which France is divided. We have a million 
American soldiers in this section. Hospitals of ten thousand 
bedseacharenumerous.TheGovernment at this time can do on- 
ly the indispensable things, and it devolves upon the Red Cross 
to do innumerable necessary things. This means great build- 
ing programs and the enormous distribution of supplies. 
We have already put up and equipped more structures than I 
can enumerate offhand. Before snow flies there must be at 
least fifty more completed, several of them of great size. Yes- 
terday, owing to the urgency for the buildings, every restraint 
as to securing authority and the preliminaries heretofore nec- 
essary was lifted so far as concerns my own activities; and in- 
structions were received to go ahead whenever necessary, using 
any material most available, adopting what plans might seem 
best, and have the buildings up before snow flies. 

We have a large construction department, and with its 
head I am spending my time going from place to place, pass- 
ing upon plans, selecting sites, and preparing for the necessary 
furnishings and personnel. 

The exaCt words of my order from headquarters were: 
"Please go at this job, and win in spite ofHell and high water; 
the time is short." The reply was that the snow would fall on 
the roofs of the completed buildings. Tomorrow Pennington 

C 59 3 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

and I will start out, and have at least three big buildings un- 
der way within forty-eight hours; and so on each day until 
the whole program is moving at once — with German 
prisoners, Algerians, Morocoans, ex-Russian soldiers, Anna- 
mites, Manchurians, and God knows what-not, digging dirt, 
mixing concrete, and nailing timbers or laying brick, all to 
help to get our shattered troops back to the front. After this 
period of sustained energy, you will not have to ask me twice 
to get out of my comfortable home bed and go down stairs on 
a cold night to put out a forgotten light — unless a great re- 
adiion sets in when it is all over. I am getting the habit. 

Yesterday I visited a city I had never seen before, lunched 
at the Officers' club, and sitting at an adjoining table was the 
man who is today perhaps the most conspicuous soldier in the 
world — General Foch. His manner was cordial and modest, 
and his expression less serious and stern than his portraits. 

Do not worry about my overworking. Remember that this 
whole big show is being run by men older than I — with no 
apologies to Dr. Osier. 

September i, 19 18. 

AS I am leaving early tomorrow morning for a three-or 
ir\^ four-day trip, I am snatching a little time from as busy 
a Sunday as I have had to tell you that everything is going 
well here. Some of the things of personal interest in the days' 
happenings were nice letters from home, a call from our old 
Albany friend, Dr. Arthur Elting, a letter from Marshall 
Kiehl, 3 1 2th Machine Gun Battalion, Co. C, "somewhere in 
France," my first intimation that he is overseas, and a hun- 

C 60 3 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

dred-mile trip to some hospitals, the starting of more con- 
strudiions, and, as happens every day, the ever moving specta- 
cle of the panoply of war. Great convoys of equipage, artil- 
lery, cavalry, carrier-pigeon cotes on wheels, marching in- 
fantry, etc. There were miles of these things. A division in 
motion is a soul-stirring sight, and one which can never be 
forgotten; and it was marching, not away from but towards 
the front. And then one sees on his rides through the country 
thousands of men in training manoeuvers, striking or erecting 
camps, separate groups of Americans off duty in every village 
and along the beautiful countryside, establishing the '■'■entente 
cordiaW with pretty French girls, playing with children, and 
generally making the best of their brief hours of relaxation. 
Last night favorable atmospheric conditions brought the 
sound of barrage fire somewhere on the front — a low rumble 
like the roll of distant thunder. These are the general impres- 
sions which have come to me during the week. As I have said 
before, the real things I would so much like to write about 
are the things which are forbidden to us to say, so that having 
exhausted and having even become so accustomed to the lit- 
tle gossip of this strange but indescribably interesting life, they 
have mostly become commonplace. It is not easy to tell you 
much that is new. France has just finished the harvest of the 
largest grain crop in her history. It is inspiring to see the en- 
tire family in the fields. In the harvesting of oats I saw every- 
where a custom which was novel to me. The reaper swings 
his cradle through the grain; and as he swings it forward, his 
wife deftly takes the grain from the cradle, and drops it at her 
feet. The reaper does not stop his scythe an instant; and if the 

C 6i : 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

joint motions were not perfectly synchronized, the woman 
would be cut as she takes the grain. And all this to save the 
second of time it would take the reaper to shake the grain 
from his cradle with each forward motion. And some of our 
fancy lady farmers have come over here to teach these clever 
people, who know how to grow wheat on the same land for a 
hundred successive years. The manure pile under the parlor 
window in the rural village is at oncetheoutward, if odorifer- 
ous, symbol of wealth and the girls' hope of dowry. I hear of 
protests from villagers against the Americans using chloride 
of lime and other disinfedbants in the latrines because they 
taint their drinking-water. I suppose that the centuries have 
immunized the natives against the efFed:s of bad drinking- 
water. 

The American chemist at one of our base hospitals was 
charged with analyzing samples of drinking-water from the 
various towns where our soldiers are billeted. He told me that 
of upwards of seventy samples he had already tested, only three 
were found to be safe for our men to drink. Can one wonder 
that light wines and the thin French beer are popular with 
the doughboy? And I know of certain A. R. C. men who are 
wicked enough to be kept in good health by the use of these 
wholesome beverages. 

September 14, 19 18. 

I HAVE lately been in the field almost continuously. Have 
approximately fifty buildings under way — which keeps 
me on the jump to keep them going. They must be finished 
before cold weather sets in. One of the nights I was away, 

n 62 3 



Lorraine: ipiS. 

the Boches dropped eight bombs here. There were no cas- 
ualties. The front of a house in which one of my associates 
rooms was blown out, but he was at the Lafayette club play- 
ing pinochle, and so escaped. 

Have had four calls at different times today from Pittsburgh 
acquaintances. It was like an Old Home Week. I said in one 
of my recent letters that probably by the time you received 
it the attention of the world would be attrad:ed to this sed:ion. 
You knew yesterday that the expecfted had happened. We 
have known here for weeks that it would happen, and have 
been preparing for it. 

During that period the exciting phases of the concentration 
of a great army for the major offensive of the war has been 
going on under our eyes. It has been a period of intense ex- 
pectancy and of thrilling experiences. I was charged, in addi- 
tion to my other duties, with the work of organizing the can- 
teen service in connection with evacuation hospitals back of 
the lines, to care for, if needed, 100,000 casualties. When the 
battle started night before last, we had the necessary machin- 
ery ready. The men and women workers were at their stations, 
the kitchens and supplies on hand, and a system of camions 
properly scheduled to move the enormous amount of equip- 
ment and food. 

Yesterday, Friday the i 3 th, bear in mind, was my greatest 
day in France. I made the rounds of these places; and saw the 
wounded men, all Americans, for it was exclusively an Amer- 
ican affair, brought into the temporary 'hospitals from the 
field and served with an abundance of hot chocolate, tobacco, 
and comforts. I saw more than 5000 Boche prisoners who 

C 63 3 



Lorraine: ipi 8. 

clogged the roads, a motley and disheveled crowd, being 
marched back from the battle-field. The sky was alive with 
aeroplanes, but they were all allied ships. I do not see how a 
Boche plane could have broken through them. 

The strings of ambulances, ammunition trucks; the lines of 
prisoners; the adiivity in the sky; the zeal with which our 
workers cared for the wounded as they were brought back; 
and the perfed: system of the American attack, which it was 
feared might be costly beyond anything previously known, 
but which surprised every one by its small losses, considering 
the great results attained, were all tremendously inspiring. To 
ourselves, who had traveled behind the lines for almost their 
entire extent, the thought that the turning-point had at last 
really come became a firm conviction. The St. Mihiel salient 
had been pinched together, and our artillery had blasted its 
way through some of the most formidable Hun fortifications. 
Such was my great unlucky Friday the 13 th, a day to have 
lived for, and one which I shall always be glad to have seen 
beyond all the great days I have had in France; and as you 
know, there have been many of them. A German officer pris- 
oner was asked if he thought our forces could capture Metz. 
He replied "If you bombard Metz as you did Mont Sec last 
night, there will be no Metz for you to take." The scenes 
around these mobile hospitals are such as one might imagine 
of a gold camp which has sprung up over night — tents, shacks, 
trucks, and mud, plus war. This town, which until forty-eight 
hours ago was seething with war movement, is today as quiet 
as a Sunday on the farm. Our forces have pushed ahead so fast, 
thus leaving us far back of the big show, that I would not be 

1:643 



Lorraine :i9 1 8. 

surprised if we evacuated our headquarters for a place nearer 
the frontier, I hope in Germany, if this push keeps going. 
Last night we could see the flashes refledied on the clouds, 
but could no longer hear the artillery. There is much sickness 
among our force. Of our mess of eight, four were in bed at 
the same time, one of them is in the hospital with pneumonia, 
the others had Spanish fever. I am well; was threatened for 
a day or two with it, but succeeded in fighting it off. I have 
intended every time I have written to urge the great impor- 
tance here of tobacco. Tell everybody to loosen up for the 
tobacco funds of all kinds. There cannot be too much of it. 
The first thing a wounded man asks for after water is a ciga- 
rette. I have placed them in their mouths and lighted them 
when they could not move a hand. The cry everywhere is for 
cigarettes. They cannot come to us fast enough. They are the 
most important single comfort that comes over here, and not 
enough are coming. A surgeon told me that tobacco was sec- 
ond only in importance to medical and surgical supplies, and 
that he was even tempted to give it first place. 

September 25, 19 18. 

WE have been almost submerged with an ever-increasing 
volume of work, and I have really the best excuse for 
not writing earlier. Even now I must confine this letter to 
mere outlines. Nicholas L. Tilney, one of our small mess, age 
thirty-four, a perfectly lovable character, who treated me not 
only as a confidant, but as a son should do, died of pneumonia 
following an attack of Spanish grippe; and we gave him a mil- 
itary funeral. 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

On the 20th Boche planes bombed the town, and then 
turned loose with machine-guns while flying just over the 
tree-tops by my windows. It was 1 1.30 p.m. in a full moon, 
and was almost as light as day. It was a damned unpleasant ex- 
perience, and I never want to hear another machine-gun. No 
casualties. Yesterday at 5 p. m. another Boche plane shot up the 
other end of the town, and killed a French civilian, and dropped 
notices that twenty-four would visit us tonight. I slept with 
clothes enough on to make a decent get-away to the cellar. 
The night, however, was cloudy, and there was nothing do- 
ing. I made a trip northwest of here last week just back of the 
front. The following day, one town I stopped at was shelled 
through and through. I slept that night in a run-down cha- 
teau, with as fine grounds and surroundings as I have seen in 
France. 

An interesting minor incident was the calling out of the 
class of 1920 — boys marching from house to house with bu- 
gles and drums, calling out their fellows, who were decorated 
with tri-color ribbons and rosettes. They had wild celebrations 
in the evening, and the next day appeared in their neat cadet 
uniforms. 

Since the operations have shifted to this part of the country, 
we are bothered with all sorts of people making what we call 
the "Ideal Tour," who somehow have secured enough influ- 
ence to get into the zone. The organization has been the re- 
fuge of every degree of crank, but they have been so merci- 
lessly weeded out that they count now for but little. The real 
people are solely trying to help win the war. The civil popu- 
lation, except in the wholly devastated distridls, are now able 

1:663 



Lorraine: ipi 8. 

to and must look after their own; since about all the money 
for the support of our armies is being poured into France. I 
must not, however, write about such matters; but much could 
be said of the mercenary rapacity of the smaller commercial 
native interests. 

The climate begins to be disagreeable, and I should like to 
get the work in shape to get home before the holidays especially 
(if it can be put in shape to turn over to others), as I feel that 
the war will end before winter sets in. A Vosges winter is 
something to be dreaded. It is a season of mud, sleet, and 
windy storms — perhaps as disagreeable, generally, as any cli- 
mate below the Ardiic circle; but it is very charming in sum- 
mer. I have not had a day's rest since I came over, and shall 
begin to feel the need of a change. 

Last week a hospital outside the zone, but not far across the 
line, was turned over to this department; and when I tell you 
that the Army has 570 buildings at that point and that the 
A. R. C. has some 40, the construction, furnishing, man- 
ning and womaning of which I shall have to supervise, it will 
convey some idea of the magnitude of our activities. Ten 
miles from that point is another almost as large. Besides these 
we have responsibility for a dozen or more canteen units. In 
fa6t I seem to be the amiable goat to whom everybody appears 
to want to pass the buck. It is not modest to refer too much 
to one's own work, but I must believe that it is thought to 
be going on pretty well or they would not be constantly in- 
creasing the load. Although there is much illness in this sec- 
tor, I have remained well. After the next offensive, which 
we are hourly expecting to break, I am gradually going to try 
to unload and spend the winter with you. 

1:673 



Lorraine: ip 1 8. 

September 30, 19 18. 

A. P.O. 731, France. 
My dear Louis: 

I WAS delighted to receive today your most interesting let- 
ter of August 30th. Every word was like manna from heav- 
en, and it was just the bulliest thing you could have sent me. 

You think you are busy. Well, you know about the angel 
who became one because he was drowned in the Johnstown 
flood, and how Noah turned away saying "Oh Hell" when 
the Johnstown angel commenced telling him what a terrible 
freshet he had floated to heaven on. My name is Noah. 

I am glad that you are seeing my letters to Ella. They are 
written for you all, and I have to steal the time to write them. 
I do wish I could write to all the friends who are thinking so 
kindly of me. I almost never see an American newspaper and 
have no opportunity to read more than the headlines of our 
French papers. Your war news is earlier and more complete 
than ours, although when the wind is right we can hear the 
guns, but thank God they are sounding fainter every day and 
we are in a fairly quiet senior except when a Boche plane 
shoots up the town. 

The war ceases to be pid;uresque or poetic, and while the 
daily incidents connecSted with it in this advance zone are the 
most interesting that man has ever seen, one soon gets fed up 
on it, and the misery, the awful waste of life, the mutilations 
and the countless kinds of horror become so naturally to seem 
the normal things of life that the finer things become as child- 
ren's memories. It is hateful in all of its phases, mats, pour 
moi, I am determined not to lose my interest in truth or 

C 68 3 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

beauty regardless of my surroundings and this keeps me inter- 
ested and, as I may say, as happy as most men can be. I shall 
look upon my life in France as the privilege of having lived 
another one — a busy, an interesting, and above all an instruc- 
tive one. I think I have learned more about human nature — 
about cranks, quacks, and all sorts of bull in the last six months 
than in all my previous life. 

I am so glad that you went out to Pittsburgh with the girls 
and your sister. By the way, I do hope that Ella found the key 
to the wine closet while you were there. 

I do want you to write often, if only a line, but don't mind 
if I seem neglectful about replying — there is a reason — and 
I hope that Ella or Julian will see that you have as many of 
my letters home as I write, and that you will know that I am 
talking to you all. I am well and absorbed in what I have to 
do — but I am longing for home. I enclose a bread ticket in 
case you get hungry. 

OSiober 8, 1918. 

I AM not going to continue apologies for falling behind in 
what is to me my greatest duty as well as pleasure, my re- 
laxation from work to write to you. 

I find that I wrote last on September 26. The important per- 
sonal thing is that we have not been bombed since then, and 
the town has been peaceful. Since the Boches have taken a 
liking to us, the authorities have installed a siren for an alerte 
so that we may dig for the cave (cellar) when the warning 
shriek is sounded. Before that a bugler went through the 
streets, and generally got around by the time the raid had 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

ended and the Boche was well on his way home, relieved of 
his load. On the occasion of the last one. Georgette, the be- 
loved and lovely fourteen-year-old daughter of Madame La 
Brosse, our equally beloved and ample cook and general house- 
keeper, tapped gently at my door, and tried to awaken me so 
that I could join the rest of the household in the vaulted cave 
of our chateau. I heard her; but the bed was so warm and I 
felt so safe under the thick feather bed, which, as in Germany, is 
the covering, that I did not answer. She returned down stairs not 
knowing whether a machine-gun bullet had got me or not, 
saying "// est terrible! il est terrible! Le pauvre Capitaine Bur- 
dee k, le pauvre Capitaine Burdeek^ peut-etre il est morty When 
I came down to breakfast, I thought Georgette would hug me 
for joy. 

I do not know if I told you about Mme. La Brosse; she is 
a wonder; there was never a more cheery cook; nothing is 
too much for her, and it is shameful how we overwork her. 
She is always laughing, always capable, and always anxious to 
oblige. M. La Brosse is a railroad employee at the Gare, but 
we see little of him. One seldom sees a Frenchman when his 
wife is in the neighborhood. If there is anything more won- 
derful than a French housewife, it is a French poilu. We 
had H. P. Davison and Harvey Gibson, Red Cross Commis- 
sioners to France, as our guests for three days; and if the truth 
were known it might develop that they stayed on because of 
Mme. La Brosse's marvelous Omelettes Souffle s-au-r hum. 

Our mess table is set for eight people, and generally it is 
filled. There never was such a men's club; and the stories we 
hear every evening from Officers and other guests are always 
fresh from the field, generally only a few hours old. 

c 703 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

The other day, I was given a trophy by an Officer who saw 
the incident. It is the original flag which gave the word for 
the first advance over the top by the Americans on the morn- 
ing of the great offensive of September 26 near Verdun. It 
was waved by an American Lieutenant who was immediately 
blown to pieces by a shell; the blood-stained flag was re- 
covered and rests peacefully in my trunk. The flag is white 
with red cross bars. The Lieutenant is thought to have been the 
first man killed on our side in that great battle. 

Then there is "Papa" Broussard, the gardener, fire build- 
er, and cleaner of boots, a dear obliging old chap, too elderly 
to fight, but with the fine temper and manner of a French 
gentleman. Another of my acquaintances is M'lle Philbric, 
daughter of a well-to-do widow. She is educated, and speaks 
English . Her interest is in finding work for the lace makers 
who have been having poor business. She is proud of French 
textile art, and without profit to herself tries to find work for 
them in their vocation. This region is the home of some of 
the finest lace and embroidery work in France — the dentelle 
de Mirecourt or dentelle aux fuseaux. I will simply say that I 
have not overlooked the opportunity to see that some of these 
wizards with the needle were given a chance to earn some- 
thing. 

September 2 7, entertained Mrs. at lunch; 28, out on in- 
spection trip; 29, again on the road; 30, Wilson McClintock 
of Pittsburgh (Aviation Service) visits me and wants to be 
particularly remembered to Julian; 31, start on a three 
days' trip South. Go through the Burgundy wine district 
while the vintage is on. The contrast of that genial, inviting, 

c 71 3 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

and rich country, beautiful and restful, against the growing 
gray of this country of hills and autumn storms was striking. 

There were other impressive things having to do with the 
war which I may not write about or you would probably not 
get this letter at all. 

Four days ago was a real red-letter day. In the same mail I 
received letters from yourself, Helene, Sarah, Lou Evans, 
Louis Banker, and the Bank of Pittsburgh. You know that 
while it is difficult for me to find time to write, there is al- 
ways time to read letters and I do wish I could receive more. 
They are the very joy of life here, and every day I am trying 
to help soldiers who are hungry for news from home. 

There is little else that I can say except that we are rejoiced 
at the turn the war is taking, and are anxiously awaiting Wil- 
son's reply to the last peace overtures. Everything is going 
well, and there is much speculation as to whether the end is 
not nearer than we dare confidently hope. There is no relax- 
ation, however, in our work; and we are not hesitating a mo- 
ment in our hospitalization programme. We authorized last 
week the construction of 2 1 Red Cross buildings at one hos- 
pital — this will convey to you a hint of what kind of a job 
this is. 

Sunday is like all other days — but no two days are at all a- 
like in this game. 

I do not know whether I shall be able to get to you or not 
the coming winter. I have to consider a lot of things before 
I can decide, but the Kaiser may call out "Kamerad" almost 
any day. His cause is doomed, and it is difficult to believe 
that he does not know it. 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

I am in fine health and spirits, but I would appreciate a few 
days' rest as soon as I can see my way clear to get away. 

I hear that Paris is gay again and full of people. There 
has been a great change in the spirit of the French since the 
tide turned on July i8, and I see less need for American Civ- 
il relief in France. Think only of our own fighting forces from 
now on. 

It is too dark to write more, 5:15 P. M. 

Hotel Continental^ Paris ^ OSiober 17, 19 18. 

HERE I am, and it seems like heaven. I left a sea of mud, 
fogs, and rain behind me in the Vosges on Tuesday af- 
ter putting things in shape for my Assistant to "carry on,"and 
beat it to Paris for a rest. I was and still am quite fagged after 
six months of strenuosity, and while every R. C. person is 
entitled to a vacation at three-month intervals, I did not take 
mine, and stayed on until everyone became sick; but kept 
well myself. The grippe epidemic hit almost everybody at 
the front, and I am ready to confess that I became afraid to 
get sick in that country. They have not much use for a man 
up there after he is dead, and his bones might get lost. Per- 
sonally, I feel that the war is over except the "mopping up;" 
and after consulting with myself and talking to some of my 
friends, I decided that sometime in the near future there is 
going to be a stampede homeward; so today I have taken a 
room on the Espagne^ one of the finest of the French Line 
ships, to sail from Bordeaux about the 1 8th of November. At 
a farewell dinner night before last to two of our Lorraine mess 
at the Grand Vatel — which, by the way, went off with eclat — 

C 73 3 



Lorraine: 191 8. 

I dropped one of my prejudices. I learned to like escargots — 
the word looks better than its English equivalent. They were 
delicious, as they were served. Some of them had shells half 
as big as a baby's fist and meat as large as a cherry stone clam. 
My guests sail today. 

I have seen Paris in three phases this year. Last April, when 
the collapse of the 5 th British army left the way open to the 
Boches, if they had only known it, the city was strained with 
apprehension. I saw it again early in August when it was prac- 
tically depopulated and was being shelled, and now the boule- 
vards and restaurants are crowded, the hotels turning people 
away, and Paris is for the first time in more than four years 
unafraid. The signs of mourning, which were so universal 
heretofore, are less in evidence, but still enough to depress one 
who had not become thoroughly accustomed to this all pervasive 
symbol of a Nation's sufferings. 

Last evening I dined at the Inter- Allied Officers' Club, lo- 
cated in Baron Rothschild's city house in the Faubourg St.- 
Honore. I saw Admiral May and the British and French 
Naval Chiefs, and a dozen or more fund:ionaries there at din- 
ner. They all looked very happy as was becoming with Vic- 
tory in the air. There were lights too — a few only, to be sure, 
— in the Place de la Concorde, for the first time, and rolling 
through the rue Rivoli in the beautiful misty moonlight were 
long lines of Boche cannon just from the Champagne front, 
moving through the luminous mystery of a soft fog, turning 
in to the Concorde where tomorrow they will be on exhibi- 
tion in hundreds. It was a pid:ure Whistler would have loved. 
It was all so silent, so mysterious, and so beautiful. I wish that 
you were here now. 

C 743 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

Interest never flags, the general depression of the earlier 
days is passing, and I hope that in the spring things will have 
become so normal that we can come together. France will 
clearly emerge greater than ever; and as I have said before, it 
is pleasant now to be an American in France. I want to go 
down to Nice for a few days before sailing. I shall have about 
a month, but I may have to spend some of that time working. 
There is still a lot to be done, but I feel that I have already 
accomplished what I came over to do. I am really in need of 
a rest, and am not going to take on any more big things, which 
might keep me going all winter. New men are coming over 
by every ship, and can take up duties as we relinquish them. 
It has been about two weeks since I have heard from any of 
the family. 

If you have occasion to write or cable, address care of Mor- 
gan, Harjes & Co., Paris. They will deliver or forward to me. 
It will hardly be worth while to write to me after this reaches 
you. The mails are very slow. 

Nice^ OEtober 30, 19 18. 

THE day following the night procession of captured ar- 
tillery, referred to in my last letter, I walked over to the 
Place de la Concorde; and found that during the night the 
great square had been filled with cannon of every size, ma- 
chine-guns, and tanks, all queerly painted in camouflage de- 
signs. Just back in the Tuilleries Gardens a row of avions — 
large and small — was placed in a line extending from the rue 
Rivoli to the Seine along the parapet of the wall which sep- 
arates the two parks; while just back of the wall a pyramid of 

C 75 3 



Lorraine: ipi 8. 

German steel helmets — every one with one or more holes 
through it — had been erected on each side of the central 
opening from the Concorde to the Tuilleries. 

There was also the remains of the giant Zeppelin which 
was brought down near Bourbonne-les-Bains while returning 
from a London bombing expedition. 

Although the day was rainy, vast crowds were circulating 
among the trophies under the Florentine masts with their 
picturesque mediaeval-looking banners, which had been erect- 
ed during the night and which gave color and brilliancy to 
the scene. These crowds were interesting in that there was no 
impulsive or nervous exultation. Their air was quietly and 
decorously serious as if it had been a matter of course that 
some day France would have the great trophies of the beaten 
robber nation on exhibition in the finest place in the world 
for such a purpose. Without advertisement or excitement 
Paris has prepared and is preparing for what will doubtless be 
the greatest celebration of a triumphal issue of war that the 
world has ever seen. It will be a day of great historic import, 
and I hope that it will come when I am here. Those who are 
in this city at that time will be lucky. 

I left Paris on the evening train of the 21st for Nice. The 
coaches were crowded with soldiers, American, French, Eng- 
lish, and Anzac. They were lying on the floors of the corri- 
dors so thickly that one could hardly pass from one com- 
partment to another. Fortunately^ I had succeeded in having 
a compartment seat reserved; and although the night was cold 
and the train unheated, I was fairly comfortable in my heavy 
clothing. The rain during the following morning obscured 

1 76 3 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

much of the scenery along the Rhone; there were passing 
glimpses, however, of the Chateau des Papes at Avignon and 
of Tarascon, the home of Daudet's fiery and intrepid Tartarin, 
of blessed memory, of the noble river and its fine battlement- 
ed hills, and a momentary glance at the Roman Theatre at 
Nismes — I always enjoy the fleeting car window impressions 
of a country which is new to me. From Marseilles to Nice the 
weather had cleared, and the ripe and colorful views of moun- 
tains, valleys, and the sea held enchantment for me until it 
became too dark to see more. My fellow-travelers in the com- 
partment from Paris were a French Colonel, a French Cap- 
tain, and a man, his wife, and daughter of perhaps sixteen on 
their way to their villa near Nice for the winter — a refined 
and gentle family. At Marseilles a woman cook, with the tra- 
ditional rotundity of figure and redness of complexion, and 
carrying a basket, which probably contained her earthly pos- 
sessions, commandeered one of the officers' seats which the 
owner had momentarily left; but she never knew that the 
officer was obliged to stand in the corridor for five hours be- 
cause he was too polite to claim his own. Imagine what a Ger- 
man officer would do in the circumstances. This woman, like 
almost all women in France, was in black. The gentle lady to 
the cook: "You have given a son, MadameV The cook: "Yes, 
Madame, one, et 'vous, MadameV The gentle lady: "Yes Ma- 
dame, two." Then monsieur, the gentle lady, and the cook 
were on common ground; and in low sympathetic voices told 
one another about their boys, their service, when and where 
killed; while the young daughter fixed her large eyes on the 
ceiling without change of expression save two great tear drops. 

C 77 1 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 



There was no class restraint or reserve; the women were in 
communion in their common loss, but except for the daugh- 
ter's moist eyes there were no tears, no expressions of regret. 
We arrived at Nice at 6 p. m. The following day was too 
rainy to attempt to see anything of the place; in fad: this is 
the wettest and most weather-fickle season of the year on the 
Riviera. I will not attempt to tell you about the place. The 
guide books to which you can refer are full of descriptive 
matter. 

On one of the rarely fine days, I motored from Nice to 
Mentone,over the Grande Cornicle ;^nd returned by thtLower- 
Corniche road, said to be the most attradive automobile trip 
in the world. So far as I know it is. It is too attractive to at- 
tempt to describe. Again, I refer you to the guide books. I 
returned with impressions of cascades of flowers over the walls 
enclosing villas, of the snowy Alps cut sharply against an un- 
believably blue sky, of the sapphire sea far below us, bordered 
with saffron- and pink-roofed cream-colored villas, groves of 
the palm like Italian pines with their crowns of almost black 
green, and of gardens of tropical luxuriance — all in golden 
sunshine — and thanked God that He had given me eyes to 
see and a soul to appreciate such a wealth of beauty and color, 
and wondered if there could elsewhere be its equal. It was 
my first visit to this entrancing corner of the world. 

Other incidents were a day at Monte Carlo where no offi- 
cer in uniform may go beyond the glass door which opens into 
the Salle de jeu, a visit to Monaco and its sea museum, and a 
memorable Sunday afternoon as a guest on Cape Ferrat, at 
what I am told is the finest villa on the Riviera, the home of 

C 78 3 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Curtis, Americans who have lived there 
for eighteen years. The gardens are superb, and the house is 
adorned vv^ith art treasures of the first rank. To outward ap- 
pearances, Nice is remote from the war, and yet the hotels 
and streets were alive with soldiers and officers of all nations 
convalescing or on "permission." Many of the hotels, and of 
these there is legion, have been converted into hospitals. The 
principal recreation pier had been leased by the Y. M. C. A. 
and was being prepared as a place of entertainment for sol- 
diers. Otherwise, the city is as in times of peace. There were 
many sea-planes and dirigibles patrolling the coast against sub- 
marines. 

I found the climate too relaxing and the weather too treach- 
erous for real recuperation, and was quite content after two 
weeks to return to the mists and cold of Paris. 

Parisy November 15, 19 18. 

I AM leaving for Bordeaux this evening on the way home. 
How fortunately my dates have worked out to permit me 
to witness the supreme joy of France over the vi6torious end- 
ing of the war, as it was expressed in Paris. 

I arrived in Paris from Nice on the 6th inst. The weather 
during the following week was as wretched as possible. I was 
so fully engaged, however, that time passed quickly. It seemed 
that, sensing the coming peace, almost every person I knew 
in France had found an excuse to come to Paris. The city was 
crowded; the hotels were as cold as before; and the restau- 
rants, which a few weeks earlier were all but deserted, were 
now crowded with cheerful, happy throngs. There was no re- 

c 79 1 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

laxation, however, in the regulations for early closing or in 
the food and heat restrictions. On the i oth (Sunday) the weath- 
er had improved, the news of the Kaiser's abdication was out. 
Flag decorations began to appear, great crowds were moving 
and restraining their enthusiasm as if they did not quite know 
what to think about the Armistice proposals, and as if the great 
news seemed to be impossible after the four years of horror. 
These crowds were, nevertheless, quietly happy; and momen- 
tum was undeniably gaining for a great rejoicing at the proper 
time. I wrote in my diary that evening, " If the Armistice is 
signed tomorrow there will be such demonstrations of joy as 
have never been seen." The entry of the following day reads, 
"And there were." At 1 1 a. m. cannon and bells announced 
that the supreme moment had arrived. At the first gun, I was 
coming out of Morgans, Harjes & Co.'s bank and decided that 
the thing to do was to go as quickly as possible to the Strass- 
burg monument, which I thought would be a focal point of 
the beginning of the demonstrations. 

This beautiful memorial of the lost Provinces for which 
France had been in mourning for almost fifty years, had be- 
come through the years an immortal symbol of belief that in 
time all of the lost things for which it stood would come back. 
The moment had arrived, and I was fortunate enough to get 
there to see a man go up a ladder and place a gold wreath of 
laurel on the head. I stood on the coping of a wall near the 
monument from where I had a good view of the crowd which 
filled the Place de la Concorde. The frenzy of delight, which 
found expression in singing, in dancing, in tears, and in the 
general embracing of every one by every one else, spread like 

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Lorraine ripi 8. 

a conflagration in all directions. One wondered at the riot of 
decorations, which burst in an instant, as it were, until the 
streets and the buildings were smothered in color. All day, all 
night, and all of the next day, the city surged with such man- 
ifestations of happiness as could only come from the quick re- 
action from years of the most intense strain and suffering a na- 
tion has ever been called upon to endure. 

You will read all about this celebration from the pens of 
the best newspaper correspondents; but even these men say 
that, as in many other events in the great drama of the last 
four years, they are well nigh helpless. One must see with 
one's own eyes to understand. This celebration can be visual- 
ized only as a composite impression. My own impressions were 
that joy was universal, that the crowds were so great it seemed 
as if the whole world were out holidaying, and yet somehow 
one moved easily through the throngs except in special places, 
where perhaps bands were playing, or in the vicinity of the 
Opera House while the operatic stars were singing out-of- 
doors. There was no littering the streets with torn paper, con- 
fetti or rubbish. There were no police in sight, there was no 
offensive drunkenness, and nothing of the coarseness, which 
characterizes so many street celebrations at home. 

I did not see a quarrel or a cross man. Camaraderie and de- 
monstrative friendliness were universal. There were no soap- 
box orators, no red flags. There was not an inharmonious note 
in the general tone of the rejoicing. The inspiring "Marseil- 
laise" was being sung everywhere, by individuals and by 
groups. One went to bed with the tune teasing his brain like 
Mark Twain's jingle of "Punch brothers, punch with care," 
etc. 

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Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

You have read of the dancing circles hand in hand, which 
came dancing through the streets by the hundreds, surround- 
ing whomsoever they started for, generally men in uniform 
and particularly those who were in American uniform. 

Children, here and there, were dragging Boche machine- 
guns to their homes. It is said that when the police reported to 
Clemenceau that they were unable to prevent the people from 
taking parts of guns, machine-guns, and other trophies away 
with them, he replied, "Let them take them; there are more 
where they came from." Well, in short, I have an impression 
of oceans of humanity at play and for two days and nights 
expending all of the pent up and suppressed emotion of four 
years in one great extravagant outburst of joy. This will be 
my last letter from France. I sail on the Espagne day after 
to-morrow; and if all goes well, shall take my Thanksgiving 
dinner with you. 



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Appendix. 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 



AMERICAN RED CROSS • 

{Croix Rouge Americaine) 

Parisy November 12, 19 18. 

From: R. G, Hutchins Jr., 

DireBor Home and Hospital Bureau. 
To: Captain J. W. Burdick, 

American Red Cross 

Subjed:: Work with the American Red Cross. 

YOU have told me that you were returning to the United 
States within the next two or three days, and I cannot 
let the opportunity go by to express not only the personal re- 
gard I have for you as a result of our coming in contad: in this 
Red Cross work during the last seven months, but officially, 
as the Diredor of the Home and Hospital Bureau, I want to 
express my appreciation of the work you have done. 

Your work in what was formerly called the Advance Zone, 
and now the Eastern Zone, with Headquarters in Neufcha- 
teau has been splendid in every way. You have not only per- 
formed the exading duties of the Chief of this Bureau in your 
Zone with tad and energy, but your influence has been for the 
good to all Red Cross workers with whom you have come in 
contad. 

Never have you found fault; never have you failed to do the 
job as it was put up to you in the right spirit and the right 



Lorraine: 19 1 8. 



way; and never have we had the slightest anxiety as to how 
the work would be performed that came under your charge. 
I cannot close this letter without telling you that I have 
learned to love you and will always prize the friendship formed 
during the last seven months. 

Hoping that you may have a safe trip, and that you will 
find all your family well, I remain. 

Most sincerely yours, 

R. G. HuTCHiNs Jr., 
DireSfor, Home and Hospital Bureau. 

AMERICAN RED CROSS 

{Croix Rouge Americaine) 

4 Place de la Concorde^ 
Paris ^ November 12, 1918. 

From; J. B, A. Fosburgh, Major A. R. C. 

DireBor General, Army and Navy Department. 

To: Joel W. Burdick, Captain A. R. C. 

Chief, H. & H., Service Section, Northeastern Zone. 
Subjedt: Appreciation of Service in A. R. C. 

1DO not feel that I can permit you to return home with- 
out expressing to you my appreciation, not only of the 
splendid service which you have rendered this organization, 
but of the very real pleasure which I have had in meeting and 
knowing you. 

I feel that to your vision as to the needs and to your aggres- 

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Lorraine: 19 1 8. 

sive spirit, is due the credit for the way in which we have been 
able to take care of the sick and wounded fresh from the fight- 
ing line. It was a big and difficult job, most ably handled. 

But in addition to a sense of actual accomplishment, I hope 
that you have some realization of the effedt which your per- 
sonality, spirit, and tireless energy have had upon the morale 
of the entire organization with which you were identified. I 
myself have felt the stimulus every time that I came in contact 
with you in the field. The conditions under which you lived 
and worked must have been extremely trying and tiring, and 
you have been perfed:ly splendid through all these months. 

I hope I shall have the pleasure of seeing something of you 
when we are both back in the States. I know we will recall 
with intense satisfaction our months of service in France. 

J. B. A. FOSBURGH, 

DireBor General, 

Army and Navy Department. 

AMERICAN RED CROSS 

{Croix Rouge Americaine) 

Paris^ November 25, 19 18. 

Mr. Joel W. Burdick, 
906 Amberson Ave., 
Pittsburgh, Pa. 

Dear Sir: — 

ON the occasion of your departure for the United States 
I desire to express on behalf of the Commission to France 
its appreciation of the satisfad:ory services you have rendered 

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to the American Red Cross in France during the past seven 
months in the department of Military Affairs. 

Very truly yours, 

H. D. Gibson, 
Commissioner for France, 



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